Verstappen on pole and Hamilton alongside in Texas

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• Standings leader Verstappen on pole in Austin for Red Bull
• Title rival Hamilton second for Mercedes
• Perez third on the grid for Red Bull

23.10. (Reuters) – Red Bull’s Formula 1 front runner Max Verstappen secured pole position for the US Grand Prix on Saturday in the last few seconds when Mercedes title rival Lewis Hamilton had to settle for second place.

Verstappen leads seven-time world champion Hamilton by six points in six remaining races and pole position at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin was the ninth of the season for the 24-year-old Dutchman – and eighth in the last eleven races.

“Ah yes, that feels really, really good,” he exclaimed over team radio after beating Hamilton by 0.209 seconds with a final flying lap of one minute 32.910 on an otherwise hot and humid afternoon in Texas began to drizzle.

“I think we did a really good job as a team … the car was much better today.”

In the front row, fans will rub their hands together for another thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle between the two on Sunday, provided they can make it safely through the first corner.

They have collided twice this season, at Silverstone and Monza.

“I hope we make it through the first corner and get a good race. I don’t think everything is decided in turn one,” said Hamilton, who celebrated five wins in Texas in a record career of 100 wins.

The winner in Austin always came from the front row, Hamilton won there in the first race in 2012 and 2014 and 2015 from second place on the grid.

However, Verstappen became the first non-Mercedes driver to take pole position there since the beginning of the V6 turbo hybrid era in 2014.

He was also ahead of Hamilton in the first two qualifying phases.

Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez had the first pole position of his career in his sights after setting the pace in practice, but ended up in third place on the grid.

The Mexican, almost a local and yelled at by many of the 120,000 spectators, was the fastest after the first flying laps, but he couldn’t keep it because first Hamilton and then Verstappen went faster.

“I thought this could be my day, unfortunately I didn’t get it all in the end when it mattered,” he said.

Perez is supported on the second row by Charles Leclerc from Ferrari, who was the fastest in the early stages of qualifying.

Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who won the last race in Turkey from pole position, qualified for fourth place, but falls back to ninth place after a start penalty for exceeding the engine allocation of his season.

The third row will be Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, who had a nervous second phase when his first lap was canceled because he went off the track.

This was followed by the team mates of the Australian Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly from AlphaTauri.

Shortly before the start of qualifying, there was also a moment of the pit lane drama when Red Bull mechanics hastily reinforced the rear wings of their two cars.

“We discovered a crack on Max’s car … the guys managed to spice up both cars,” said team principal Christian Horner.

Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London; Editing by Ken Ferris and Daniel Wallis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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