With championship in sight Hamilton nabs pole at COTA; Vettel qualifies P2 but face 3-spot drop; Raikkonen best Bottas for P3
With his potential fifth Drivers’ World Championship tantalizingly close, Mercedes’ ace Lewis Hamilton did his best to make that illustrious dream come true by setting a new track record lap at the Circuit of the Americas on Saturday to take pole for tomorrow’s United States Grand Prix. As if emerging on the top of the pylon in a very tight and tense qualifying session at COTA was not a favorable enough omen, the English points leader had the double satisfaction of seeing his last remaining title rival, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, not only come home runner up to him over 6-tenths behind in P2 but also facing a 3-grid spot penalty for a Red Flag speeding infraction in Friday practice. Once again the German superstar, who is also dreaming of a fifth championship, proved to be his own worst enemy by needlessly picking up a penalty that will make winning in Austin extraordinarily difficult. And trailing Hamilton by a whopping 67 points with only four races to go including tomorrow’s contest Vettel really needs to compete for the win in every remaining GP if he’s to keep his title hopes alive. Vettel will have to start P5 come race day tomorrow and hope that he can somehow surge to the front without making any more mental mistakes that might just seal the deal for Hamilton on Sunday.
Vettel’s outgoing teammate Kimi Raikkonen put in a solid effort to qualify P3, which could enable Ferrari to try to play some games to try and bring Vettel further to the front, especially as Hamilton’s wingman Valtteri Bottas could qualify no better than P4. Look for the Finn to be the meat in a Ferrari sandwich going into the steep uphill Turn 1 here at COTA. Daniel Ricciardo was the lone Red Bull to make it into Q3 and was fifth fastest overall. His teammate Max Verstappen suffered rear suspension failure in Q1 after taking a few too many liberties with the high sausage curbs at this challenging circuit and will start from P15. That should insure another exciting pass-a-thon from the flying Dutchman as he seeks to duplicate last year’s remarkable run here that almost netted a podium after starting from 16th if not for the stewards’ ruling against him in a last lap tussle with Raikkonen.
Further back, Force India’s Esteban Ocon took best of the midfield runners honors with his impressive P6 time. The possibility that this talented Frenchman will likely lose his seat in F1 next year through no fault of his own is a genuine travesty. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg qualified P7 and Romain Grosjean was P8 for Haas at their home Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc did well to place his Sauber in P9 and the other Force India of Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10 with the tenth fastest lap.
Top 10 qualifiers for the U.S. GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:34.130 | 1:33.480 | 1:32.237 | |
| 2 | 1:34.569 | 1:33.079 | 1:32.298 | |
| 3 | 1:34.703 | 1:32.884 | 1:32.307 | |
| 4 | 1:34.518 | 1:33.702 | 1:32.616 | |
| 5 | 1:34.755 | 1:34.185 | 1:33.494 | |
| 6 | 1:34.876 | 1:34.522 | 1:34.145 | |
| 7 | 1:34.932 | 1:34.564 | 1:34.215 | |
| 8 | 1:34.892 | 1:34.419 | 1:34.250 | |
| 9 | 1:35.069 | 1:34.255 | 1:34.420 | |
| 10 | 1:35.193 | 1:34.525 | 1:34.594 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live starting at 1:30PM Eastern on ESPN2 ABC here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if Vettel can deny the inevitable and keep Ferrari’s hopes alive or Hamilton will enter the rarified 5-time champion club!