Verstappen snatches pole position from Hamilton at the United States Grand Prix

Max Verstappen clinched pole position at the 2021 United States Grand Prix in the seventeenth race of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Lewis Hamilton had to be content with second position and will start from the first row. Sergio Pérez initially had provisional pole position and finished in third position. The Red Bull Racing team will have two drivers against one driver at the front for the race on Sunday.

The qualifying session at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Austin took place under hot conditions with air temperatures at 30 degree C and track temperatures at 37 degree C.

Q1: Charles Leclerc Tops The Session

The first drivers on the track were the Haas F1 team drivers and Lance Stroll.

Verstappen went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m34.521s, just 0.054s ahead of team-mate Pérez.

Bottas slotted into third position, 0.138s slower than Verstappen. Hamilton was in fourth position.

Ricciardo then snatched top position with a lap time of 1m34.407s with Norris in third position.

The Red Bull drivers went 1-2 once again with Verstappen’s 1m34.352s putting him at the top of the time charts. But Leclerc with a lap time of 1m34.153s topped the session in the dying minutes.

Q1 dropzone: Lance Stroll, Nicholas Latifi, Kimi Räikkönen, Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin

Q2: Vettel and Alonso knocked out

Both Mercedes drivers were out on the track early on the medium compound tyres. Pérez and Ricciardo lost their lap times for exceeding track limits at Turn 9.

Verstappen slotted into first position with a lap time of 1m33.464s which was over 0.3 seconds faster than Hamilton. Sainz was on the soft compound tyres even as the top five drivers were on the medium compound tyres.

In the dying minutes of the session, Pérez and Ricciardo finished in seventh and ninth positions to qualify for the next session.

Yuki Tsunoda pushed out Esteban Ocon to take tenth position and the final Q3 spot.

Q2 dropzone: Esteban Ocon, Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Giovinazzi, Fernando Alonso, George Russell

Q3: Verstappen snatches pole position

Hamilton’s first Q3 effort was a lap time of 1m33.564s and Bottas was faster and took top position.

Pérez was on provisional pole as he went faster than Verstappen by 0.019 seconds. It was a Red Bull Racing 1-2 and Hamilton was struggling for grip.

On his second flying lap, Hamilton took provisional pole position with a lap time of 1m33.119s. But Verstappen with a supreme effort snatched pole position from Hamilton even as a slight drizzle started.

Pérez was pushed to third position ahead of Bottas who has a 5-place grid penalty. The two Scuderia Ferrari drivers, Leclerc and Sainz finished ahead of the two McLaren F1 team drivers, Ricciardo and Norris. The Scuderia AlphaTauri drivers, Gasly and Tsunoda rounded off the top ten positions.

Top 10: Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Pérez, Valtteri Bottas, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda

2021 United States GP Qualification Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	33	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	1:34.352	1:33.464	1:32.910	16
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:34.579	1:33.797	1:33.119	16
3	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	1:34.369	1:34.178	1:33.134	19
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:34.590	1:33.959	1:33.475	15
5	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:34.153	1:33.928	1:33.606	17
6	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:34.558	1:34.126	1:33.792	15
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:34.407	1:34.643	1:33.808	15
8	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:34.551	1:33.880	1:33.887	14
9	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:34.567	1:34.583	1:34.118	17
10	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:35.360	1:35.137	1:34.918	18
11	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	1:35.747	1:35.377		12
12	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:35.281	1:35.500		9
13	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:35.920	1:35.794		8
14	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Alpine F1 Team	1:35.756	1:44.549		12
15	63	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1:35.746	DNF		11
16	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:35.983			7
17	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:35.995			6
18	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:36.311			7
19	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:36.499			9
20	9	Nikita Mazepin	RAF	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:36.796			8