Hamilton beats Vettel in US GP qualifying
Lewis Hamilton continued his domination of the 17th round of the 2017 Formula 1 season, taking pole position at the Circuit of the Americas.
Hamilton topped both of the opening two qualifying sessions before smashing the field in Q3 with a 1m33.108s on his first of two runs in the top-10 shootout.
Sebastian Vettel struggled throughout qualifying and Valtteri Bottas made a Mercedes one-two look likely until Vettel pulled out a lap in the dying moments of Q3 good enough for P2.
At the chequered flag, Vettel was 0.239s slower than Hamilton. Bottas completed the top three.
Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen set identical lap times in fourth and fifth.
Max Verstappen, who will start from the back due to grid penalties, could only manage sixth fastest after running off on the exit of the penultimate corner on both of his Q3 flyers.
In seventh was Esteban Ocon followed by Carlos Sainz Jr. who qualified an impressive eighth on his Renault debut. Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez completed the top 10.
An under-pressure Felipe Massa was pipped to a Q3 spot by Ocon by just 0.042s.
Stoffel Vandoorne’s practice struggles continued as he could only manage 13th, nearly six tenths adrift of McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso.
Nico Hulkenberg progressed into Q2 but didn’t turn a wheel in the second session, the German will start from the back of the grid on Sunday due to grid penalties.
Marcus Ericsson was beaten to a place in Q2 by just 0.007s by Romain Grosjean. Lance Stroll and debutant Brendon Hartley were also within a hundredth of the Frenchman.
Stroll is under investigation after blocking Grosjean at the final corner. Grosjean’s team-mate Kevin Magnussen could also face a penalty after blocking Sergio Perez.
The Dane was slowest of all, two tenths off 19th fastest Pascal Wehrlein.