Max Verstappen has edged out championship rival Lewis Hamilton to claim pole position for the US Grand Prix. Respective teammate Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas hold down row 2 in what shapes as an intriguing battle of team tactics for the Grand Prix, while Ferrari edged out McLaren in the battle for 3rd.

Formula 1 returned to Texas for the 2021 US Grand Prix. After joining the list of cancellation in 2020, the race returned to Austin with huge crowds on hand with a renewed enthusiasm for the sport thanks to the new insights from Netflix.

The track surface had been the subject of criticism since the MotoGP circus had run at COTA a few weeks ago. The bumps were far less of an issue for the Formula 1 cars, though the sustained impacts were blamed for a hairline fracture on the rear wing of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull Honda.

Track limits was of more concern for drivers with zero tolerance from Race Control, especially at Turn 19, which saw so many times deleted.

Car hit the track unusually early in Q1 with a 40% chance of rain forecast for the session. Another anomaly was the predominance of soft tyre runners so early in the session. A race preference for the medium compound tyre meant that the softer tyre was the one to go and it worked well for Daniel Ricciardo and the Red Bull Honda drivers.

Ricciardo’s first flying lap took him to the top of the timesheets only to be eclipsed by Verstappen a short time later with the barest of margins. Perez then scrambled into P2 while Norris ended some 2/10ths behind his teammate. The times were good enough to keep the McLaren Mercedes and Red Bull Honda cars in the garage for the rest of the session.

Eighth placed Pierre Gasly and those below returned to the garage and fitted a second set of tyres in preparation for another time attack. Hamilton and Bottas, who had held a substantial advantage on Friday were now towards the blunt end of the top 10 and took to the circuit on used soft tyres once more.

Charles Leclerc demonstrated the improvement in grip levels when he posted the fastest lap during the final seconds of Q1. He finished just shy of 2/10ths faster than Verstappen and Perez. Ricciardo held 4th ahead of Norris, Sainz, Gasly, Hamilton, Bottas and Vettel.

Lance Stroll fond himself on the wrong edge of the knife as the chequered flag fell in 16th and was eliminated from Q2.  He was joined by Nicholas Latifi, Kimi Raikkonen, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.

Q2 began poorly for Perez, Ricciardo and Russell when the trio had their first laps deleted for track violations, while Vettel and Giovinazzi had not yet completed a lap. Valtteri Bottas led Lewis Hamilton for their first attack, the #77 providing a tow for his teammate down the back straight. Bottas set the benchmark only to be overtaken by Hamilton and Verstappen in quick order. The majority of cars had taken to the track on shiny new medium compound tyres, except for Russell and Sainz who had chosen another set of red walled soft tyres.

Perez and Ricciardo were out once more with 4 minutes left. Perez claimed 7th on his first run, while Ricciardo also ran a cautious lap with yellow sector times for the 9th fastest time. There were a few anxious moments for the Australian as Tsunoda, Alonso, Ocon and Vettel completed their laps, but the McLaren driver was safe and progressed to Q3.

Ocon, Vettel, Russell, Giovinazzi and Alonso were the drivers to miss out on a place in Q3.

The soft tyres returned as the top 10 launched a final assault for pole position. Hamilton was the first to record the fastest time for a brief moment before Bottas ended 1/10th of a second ahead. Verstappen jumped to the top of the order with a lap almost 3/10th of a second better than the rest. Ferrari held the advantage over McLaren after the first run with Sainz and Leclerc a few hundredths faster than Ricciardo and Norris. Perez then unleashed his flying lap and almost became the first driver into the 1.32 bracket with a 1:33.180.

With the chequered flag in sight the drivers went out for one last lap. Bottas was unable to improve on his 4th place, though Lewis Hamilton did. A purple time in sector 2 saw the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 driver take provisional pole in a 1.33.119, 6/100ths faster than Perez.

Verstappen left his best for the final run and became the only driver to break the 1.33 barrier. His 1:32.901 was 2/10ths better than Hamilton for pole.

Sergio Perez finished 3rd ahead of Bottas, Leclerc, Sainz, Ricciardo, Norris, Gasly and Tsunoda.

“It was quite exciting out there,” Max Verstappen told Sky Sports. “In Q3 my first lap wasn’t amazing and then in the final lap it starting raining, like spitting, with a drizzle in the last sector especially. I wasn’t sure if I was going to hang on to my lap time but it was enough.

To be P1 and P3 as a team was a very strong performance. From here on we hope to have a good start tomorrow and then work as a team to get the best possible result.”

Driver		Grid	Qual time
	M. Verstappen Red Bull · #33	1	1:32.910
	L. Hamilton Mercedes · #44	2	1:33.119
	S. Pérez Red Bull · #11	3	1:33.134
	C. Leclerc Ferrari · #16	4	1:33.606
	C. Sainz Jr. Ferrari · #55	5	1:33.792

	D. Ricciardo McLaren · #3	6	1:33.808
	L. Norris McLaren · #4	7	1:33.887
	P. Gasly AlphaTauri · #10	8	1:34.118
	V. Bottas Mercedes · #77	9	1:33.475
	Y. Tsunoda AlphaTauri · #22	10	1:34.918
	E. Ocon Alpine · #31	11	1:35.377
	A. Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo · #99	12	1:35.794
	L. Stroll Aston Martin · #18	13	1:35.983
	N. Latifi Williams · #6	14	1:35.995
	K. Räikkönen Alfa Romeo · #7	15	1:36.311
	M. Schumacher Haas · #47	16	1:36.499
	N. Mazepin Haas · #9	17	1:36.796
	S. Vettel Aston Martin · #5	18	1:35.500
	F. Alonso Alpine · #14	19	1:44.549
	G. Russell Williams · #63	20	DNF

Photos: f1.com

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