MAX VERSTAPPEN BEATS HAMILTON FOR POLE ON HIS FAVORITE CIRCUIT

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen took his ninth pole position of the year at the Circuit of the Americas beating title rival Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes by two tenths of a second as Sergio Pérez claimed third place on the grid for the United States Grand Prix for Red Bull.

In Q1, Verstappen led the way early on with an opening flying lap of 1:34.521 with Pérez slotting into second place just five hundredths of a second behind. They were edged out of the top two places by McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo but on their second runs the Red Bull drivers re-established supremacy, with Verstappen taking P1 with a lap of 1:34.352 and Pérez making his way to second just 0.017s behind.

However, in the final moments of the session Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc put in a good lap of 1:34.153 to shuffle the Red Bull pair back, while Ricciardo progressed in P4 ahead of team-mate Lando Norris and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas went through in sixth and seventh places respectively.

Eliminated at the end of the first session were Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in 16th place ahead of Williams’ Nicholas Latifi, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen and the Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.

In Q2, on medium tyres, Verstappen powered to the top of the order with his first flying lap, 0.333s ahead of Hamilton and McLaren’s Lando Norris, but Pérez’s opening push lap was deleted, as he fell foul of track limits at Turn 19.

After the first runs Pérez sat in 11th place and in the drop zone at the head of a squad of drivers who had either had times deleted or who had chosen to sit out the first runs due to tyre strategy. But after bolting on another set of mediums, Pérez used his second run to make his way to seventh place and safety with a lap of 1:34.178.

The man in danger then was McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who had also exceeded track limits on his first run. The Australian made no mistake on his set attempt and he jumped from P12 to P9 with a lap of 1:34.643.

That pushed AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda into the drop zone in P11 but the Japanese rookie put in a good lap of 1:35.137 to clamber back to 10th place and edge out Alpine’s Esteban Ocon by two tenths of a second.

In the final top-10 shoot-out it was Pérez who made the biggest statement of intent with a superb lap of 1:33.180 that put him on provisional pole, almost two hundredths of a second ahead of Verstappen, with Bottas third ahead of Hamilton.

The Mercedes pair were at the head of the queue for the final runs and when Hamilton crossed the line at the end of his final flyer he jumped to P1 with a lap of 1:33.119.

Behind him Bottas failed to improve but the Bulls were just starting their final flyers. Verstappen went purple through the first sector and then powered a sequence of personal bests in the mini-sectors of the middle part of the track. And when he crossed the line it was a convincing 0.209s clear of Hamilton and his ninth pole of the year was sealed.

Pérez almost joined his team-mate on the front row but the Mexican missed out to Hamilton by the tiny margin of 0.013s. The Mexican did beat Valtteri Bottas, however, to put the Team in a strong position for the race as the Finnish Mercedes driver is set to take a five-place engine-related grid penalty for tomorrow’s race.

Behind the top four, Charles Leclerc qualified fifth for Ferrari ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz, while McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris finished seventh and eighth. The top 10 was completed by the AlphaTauri pairing of Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda.

UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX - QUALIFYING
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP
1.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:32.910
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	1:33.119	+ 0.199
3.	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	1:33.134	+ 0.224
4.	Valtteri Bottas*	Mercedes AMG	1:33.475	+ 0.565
5.	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:33.606	+ 0.696
6.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:33.792	+ 0.882
7.	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	1:33.808	+ 0.898
8.	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:34.887	+ 0.977
9.	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1:34.118	+ 1.208
10.	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1:34.918	+ 2.008
* +5 grid places penalty - change of ICE Q2 Fastest Time: Max Verstappen - 1:33.464
11.	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:35.377	+ 1.915
12.	Sebastian Vettel**	Aston Martin	1:35.500	+ 2.036
13.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	1:35.794	+ 2.330
14.	Fernando Alonso**	Alpine	1:44.549	+ 11.085
15.	George Russell**	Williams	/	/
** start from back - change of PU Q1 Fastest time: Charles Leclerc - 1:34.153
16.	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:35.983	+ 1.830
17.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	1:35.995	+ 1.842
18.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo	1:36.311	+ 2.158
19.	Mick Schumacher	Haas	1:36.499	+ 2.346
20.	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	1:36.796	+ 2.643
107% time: 1:40.744
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 2019 Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes AMG - 1:32.029 2021 Max Verstappen - Red Bull - 1:32.910 @МкФормула1 - Република Македонија @MkFormula1 - Republic of Macedonia