VALTTERI BOTTAS SET NEW TRACK RECORD TIME TO START FROM POLE POSITION

Valtteri Bottas put himself in the best position to keep his slim title chances alive by claiming his 5th pole position of the season at the Circuit of Americas, while championship-leading team-mate Lewis Hamilton could only mange fifth in qualifying for the United States Grand Prix.

After finishing 5th and 6th in the opening two segments of qualifying in Austin, Bottas upped the pace in the first runs of Q3 to set an unbeatable time.

Vettel got closest, but with only Max Verstappen improving slightly on his final run to keep third place, Bottas took his 11th career pole, just 0.012s ahead of Vettel.

To keep his title hopes alive Bottas must win US GP and if he adds fastest lap point hope that Hamilton finishes outside the top eight.

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas claimed pole position for the United States Grand Prix, also setting a new track record in the process. Bottas's pole time was set on the red soft compound tyre, but his best Q2 time was established on the yellow medium, which means that this is the tyre he will start the race. His team mate Lewis Hamilton, the two Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, plus the Red Bull of Max Verstappen will also start on the yellow tyre.

There could be a very wide range of pit stop tactics seen, as was the case at the Circuit of the Americas last year. We'll probably see both one and two pit stops, depending on race day track conditions.

While still quite cool, conditions were considerably warmer than they were friday, and this trend is expected to continue for sunday as well. McLaren is the team that has been fast all weekend, with Lando Norris sealing P3 in FP3, P1 in Q1, and both cars starting in the top 10.

Red soft tyre is theoretically around a second per lap faster than the medium, but the top five on the grid will start on the medium, with those immediately behind them starting on the soft. In race conditions, this performance gap between the two compounds is expected to come down significantly.

UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX - QUALIFYING
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP
1.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	1:32.029
2.	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:32.041	+ 0.012
3.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:32.096	+ 0.067
4.	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:32.137	+ 0.108
5.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	1:32.321	+ 0.292
6.	Alexander Albon	Red Bull	1:32.548	+ 0.519
7.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren	1:32.847	+ 0.818
8.	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:33.175	+ 1.146
9.	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:33.488	+ 1.459
10.	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:33.601	+ 1.572
Q2 Fastest Time: Charles Leclerc - 1:32.760
11.	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault	1:33.815	+ 1.055
12.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:33.979	+ 1.219
13.	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:33.989	+ 1.229
14.	Lance Stroll	Racing Point	1:34.100	+ 1.340
15.	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:34.158	+ 1.398
Q1 Fastest Time: Lando Norris - 1:33.353
16.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	1:34.226	+ 0.873
17.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo	1:34.369	+ 1.016
18.	George Russell	Williams	1:35.372	+ 2.019
19.	Sergio Pérez*	Racing Point	1:35.808	+ 2.455
20.	Robert Kubica	Williams	1:35.889	+ 2.536
107% time: 1:39.887
* penalty start from pit-line HYBRID HISTORY - 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 2019 Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes AMG - 1:32.029 @MakFormula1 - Republic of Macedonia