HAMILTON ON POLE, BUT FERRARI BACK IN RANGE OF MERCEDES AMG

Lewis Hamilton claimed his ninth Formula 1 pole position of the season in qualifying for the United States Grand Prix, while title rival Sebastian Vettel will start fifth. Vettel was Hamilton's closest challenger on pace in Austin qualifying, but has a three-place grid penalty for speeding under the safety car during Friday practice.

Kimi Raikkonen, will start alongside Hamilton on the front row, ahead of Valtteri Bottas who was 0.379s off Hamilton in the second Mercedes and ended the session fourth fastest and of the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.

Both Mercedes drivers, Vettel and Ricciardo will start the race on the supersoft Pirellis having used that compound to set their Q2 times - although Raikkonen used ultrasofts.

Max Verstappen could not run in Q2 after a failure of the right-rear suspension when running over an exit kerb in the first segment of qualifying.

2018 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX - QUALIFYING
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	1:32.237
2.	Sebastian Vettel*	Ferrari	1:32.298	+ 0.061
3.	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:32.307	+ 0.070
4.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	1:32.616	+ 0.379
5.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:33.494	+ 1.257
6.	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:34.145	+ 1.908
7.	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:34.215	+ 1.978
8.	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:34.250	+ 2.015
9.	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1:34.420	+ 2.183
10.	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:34.594	+ 2.357
Q2 Fastest Time: Kimi Raikkonen - 1:32.884
11.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	1:34.567	+ 1.682
12.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:34.732	+ 1.848
13.	Pierre Gasly**	Toro Rosso	no time	/
14.	Brendon Hartley**	Toro Rosso	no time	/
15.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	no time	/
Q1 Fastest Time: Lewis Hamilton - 1:34.130
16.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:35.294	+ 1.164
17.	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1:35.362	+ 1.232
18.	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:35.480	+ 1.350
19.	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:35.536	+ 1.406
20.	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:35.735	+ 1.605
107% time: 1:40.720
*  penalty 3 grid places ** penalty for change of PU elements HYBRID ERA - COTA 2014 Nico Rosberg - Mercedes AMG - 1:36.067 2015 Nico Rosberg - Mercedes AMG - 1:56.824 2016 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:34.999 2017 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:33.108 2018 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:32.237 @MkFormula1 - Republic of Macedonia