Austin Qualifying: Hamilton nips it from Ferrari

Hamilton's best lap of 1:32.237 around Circuit of the Americas was good enough to claim his 81st top spot start, with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen less than a tenth of a second adrift.

Hamilton summed up, "That was very important, it was close. These guys... [pause] I didn't know how close it would be. I knew it was edgy between us and would require some solid laps - the first one was decent but not enough and the second one was better.

"There's been some races when I haven't been able to do better so I'm happy I could today. The track started out green and slippery, and it's been getting faster and faster in every session here this weekend. There's also a headwind going into the Esses..."

"It's such a big crowd here, there's so many fans. We'll see what happens tomorrow, the Ferraris are quick. I hope for better weather for everyone watching, and I hope it's an exciting race tomorrow," added Hamilton.

Vettel was second quickest, a mere 0.061 of a second shy of his title rival's pole-winning lap, with Raikkonen nine milliseconds shy of his Ferrari teammate.

The German, who will drop three places on the grid to fifth, due to a penalty he received in FP1, said afterwards, "It was pretty close, obviously it is a shame we missed out on that time. Six hundredths, you always think you had that time in you It has been dry today and better, the wind has made it tricky but it is the same for everyone. I'm happy that we are back in range, not in the wet, but the dry and today has been surprisingly close."

Raikkonen reported, "A little bit too slow but I can deal with it, and now it has been a positive day and we got pretty close. I feel good with the car. We will try tomorrow. It’ll be a good race and nobody knows how the tyres will fare with yesterday’s rain. I don't have much to lose - we will try and make a good start and go from there to see what we can do but it should be OK."

Valtteri Bottas was fourth fastest in the #77 Mercedes, but four tenths down on his teammate in the sister car on pole.

Over 1.2 seconds down on Hamilton's best was Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull, fifth on the timing screens. His teammate Max Verstappen was an early casualty when, during his hot lap run in Q3, the right rear wheel of his car slapped a sausage kerb hard enough to damage the suspension. The #33 car limped back to the pits, but the Dutchman's day was done.

The battle for the Best of the Rest was intense - several drivers within a quarter of a second - Esteban Ocon putting down a solid effort to claim sixth place on the grid, the Force India driver half a tenth of a second up on Renault's Nico Hulkenberg in seventh.

Romain Grosjean was eighth in the Haas, ahead of Charles Leclerc who again comprehensively outshone his Sauber teammate Marcus Ericsson down in 19th.

Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten in the other Force India, the Mexican four tenths down on his teammate Ocon.

While Both Toro Rossos made it into Q2, mone of the McLaren or Williams drivers progressed beyond Q1, another miserable qualifying performance by the once mighty teams.

Starting from fifth on the grid, Vettel will have his work cut out on Sunday at the venue where Hamilton has won five times in the last six years. The Mercedes driver is also on a roll, with six wins in the last seven rounds.

Another win on Sunday would be Hamilton’s fifth in a row, and Vettel would have to finish second to keep the championship alive to Mexico the following weekend.

Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas will share the second row with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and neither will be easy for Vettel to get past.

Hamilton went quickest in Q1, with the Briton posting a time of 1:34.176. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas went through in P2 ahead of the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen.

Elsewhere, there was trouble for Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver had made light work of progressing to Q2, his opening time of 1:34.766 putting him sixth in the closing stages, behind team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

The Dutchman might have improved but he suffered suspension damage on his next lap and was forced to crawl back to the pits. With his team unable to repair the damage in time for Q2, Verstappen was ruled out of the remainder of the session. He qualified in P15 but when penalties are applied to Toro Rosso drivers Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley, 13^th and 14^threspectively in qualifying, Verstappen should start from P13.

At the bottom of the order, the drivers in danger as the clock counted down the final two minutes were McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin, Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, the second McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne and the other Williams of Lance Stroll.

While all improved on their final laps, so too did rivals around them and as the laps played out the only one of the five to improve his position was Stroll who moved from P20 to P18, ahead of Ericsson and Vandoorne.

In Q2, Räikkönen set the pace on ultrasoft tyres, the Ferrari man posting a lap of 1:32.884. Behind him, Vettel, both Mercedes drivers and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo completed their opening runs on supersoft tyres. Vettel took P2 ahead of Hamilton, Bottas and Ricciardo.

While Ricciardo opted to sit out the final runs (there being little danger from rivals further back), both Mercedes drivers and Vettel bolted on ultrasofts and took to the track, but all three bailed out of their runs before the flag and like Ricciardo they will start the race on supersofts. Sauber’s progressed in P6, ahead of Haas’ Romain Grosjean, Force India’s Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez, and 10^th-placed Nico Hulkenberg.

The Renault driver was lucky to make it through. Team-mate Carlos Sainz looked to be on a good final lap but a small mistake in the final corner cost him and he was eliminated in P11, just two thousandths of a second off his team-mate. Also ruled out were 12^th placed Kevin Magnussen of Haas, Gasly, Hartley and Verstappen.

In Q3 it was Hamilton to the fore again, with the championship leader taking his 81^st career pole with a time of 1:32.237. The margin was fine though, and Vettel’s time of 1:32.298 saw him finish 0.061s behind his title rival.

Behind them, Räikkönen was third ahead of Bottas and Ricciardo took fifth spot, his first-run time of 1:33.494 proving good enough to take the position more than sixth tenths of a second ahead of sixth-placed Ocon. Seventh place went to Hulkenberg, with the German finishing ahead of Leclerc and Perez.