Verstappen clinches pole position at the Circuit of the Americas ahead of the 2021 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen will start the race with a clear view of the rise into turn one after a perfect final qualifying lap. The Dutchman will have his championship contender, Lewis Hamilton, alongside him after the Brit qualified second.

Hamilton will be determined not to make it an easy afternoon for Verstappen as he looks to regain the lead at the top of the drivers’ standings.

Sergio Perez, who showed impressive pace throughout qualifying, found pace for third and will hope to have a good race and help his Red Bull teammate in fending off the seven-time world champion.

Q1

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The first drivers out on track were both Haas cars of Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher followed by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen jumped to the top of the timings screens as he set a 1:34.521 with his teammate Sergio Perez half a tenth slower.

Two minutes later, both Mercedes cars posted their first times. Valtteri Bottas went over a tenth slower than leader Verstappen to move up to third with Hamilton posting the fourth quickest time.

With nine minutes remaining, Daniel Ricciardo went quickest with an impressive 1:34.407. The Aussie’s teammate, Lando Norris, went a tenth-and-a-half slower which put him in third place.

Verstappen reclaimed the top spot by half a tenth with just over six minutes on the clock. Moments later, Perez moved back up to second, just 17-thousandths off his teammate’s time.

All drivers briefly returned to the pits with five minutes of Q1 remaining, as they prepared to start their second runs to secure Q2 qualification.

As the flag dropped, Hamilton’s final lap was only good enough for sixth place with his Mercedes teammate settling for seventh.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set an impressive 1:34.153 which saw the Monegasque driver top the session, just under two-tenths quicker than Verstappen.

Despite having a good lap impeded by Nikita Mazepin earlier in the session, Sebastian Vettel found pace across the line to finish the session 10th.

Drivers eliminated in Q1 were Nikita Mazepin, Mick Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll.

Q2

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George Russell was the first driver to emerge from the pit lane in Q2 ahead of the Mercedes duo of Bottas and Hamilton.

Bottas became the first driver of the weekend to break into the 1:33’s and temporarily claimed the top spot before his time was beaten by Hamilton and Verstappen with 10 minutes to go.

Norris jumped up into the top three moments later with the McLaren man just four-tenths slower than Verstappen’s fastest time.

With eight minutes remaining, all of the drivers returned to the pits at the end of their first Q2 runs to prepare themselves for their most important runs.

Perez set the first time during the second runs which moved him into seventh place, over seven-tenths down on his teammate.

Yuki Tsunoda’s late time saw him move up to 10th as he advanced to Q3 for the second race in a row which in turn knocked Esteban Ocon and out of qualifying.

Drivers eliminated in Q2 were Esteban Ocon, Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Giovinazzi, Fernando Alonso and George Russell.

Q3

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Hamilton was the first driver out onto the track with Bottas not far behind as the pole position shootout began.

It was the Brit who set the session’s first time, but Bottas eclipsed his teammate’s time moments later as the Finn claimed provisional pole with a 1:33.475.

With six minutes to go, Verstappen smashed Bottas’ time as the Dutchman set a 1:33.199. However, Perez immediately pipped his teammate as the Mexican hunted down his first-ever F1 pole position.

All of the drivers returned to the track to commence their second runs of Q3 with four minutes of the session to go.

As the flag dropped, Hamilton claimed provisional pole as he went six-hundredths quicker than Perez, but Verstappen strung together a perfect lap to snatch pole position away from Hamilton in the dying embers.

The two championship protagonists will line up alongside each other on the front row of the grid as they continue their battle for the F1 crown.

Rounding out the top 10 qualifiers are Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, who will start from ninth after another grid penalty, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda.

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