Mercedes and Ferrari front row at Circuit of Americas

Mercedes scored pole position thanks to a great effort by Lewis Hamilton followed by Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari at the Circuit of Americas in Austin, Texas. It was a tough one because Vettel needed every chance he could get to stay ahead of Hamilton in ever there was a chance of getting the drivers championship.

Valtteri Bottas is in 3rd position followed by Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull and Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari car. Max Verstappen is in sixth but he faces a 15-place grid penalty and Esteban Ocon of Force India is in 7th position. Carlos Sainz who swapped over to Renault qualified eighth with Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez completing the top 10 line up for the race later today.

Notable incidences occurred during the first qualifying where Romain Grosjean almost hit Lance Stroll’s Williams’ when Stroll went out of the grid. This forced Grosjean unto the grass and then back on the track without much incident. He did sound extremely pissed off.

 

Kevin Magnussen was penalised by the stewards for blocking Grosjean who was on a fast lap but that was due to his team informing Magnussen that the car behind wasn’t on a fast lap. It almost uneventful at the Circuit of Americas in Austin, Texas, the race is heating up with Lewis Hamilton hoping to hold on strong to his lead in the drivers’ championship.

 

The provisional grid, after penalties:

Hamilton, Vettel; Bottas, Ricciardo; Raikkonen, Ocon; Sainz, Alonso; Perez, Massa; Kvyat, Grosjean; Ericsson, Vandoorne; Wehrlein, Stroll; Verstappen, Magnussen; Hulkenberg, Hartley.

Here are the full qualifying results.

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	Q1	Q2	Q3	LAPS
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:34.822	1:33.437	1:33.108	18
2	5	Sebastian Vettel	FERRARI	1:35.420	1:34.103	1:33.347	18
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	1:35.309	1:33.769	1:33.568	17
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER	1:35.991	1:34.495	1:33.577	14
5	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FERRARI	1:35.649	1:33.840	1:33.577	17
6	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER	1:34.899	1:34.716	1:33.658	13
7	31	Esteban Ocon	FORCE INDIA MERCEDES	1:35.849	1:35.113	1:34.647	17
8	55	Carlos Sainz	RENAULT	1:35.517	1:34.899	1:34.852	17
9	14	Fernando Alonso	MCLAREN HONDA	1:35.712	1:35.046	1:35.007	15
10	11	Sergio Perez	FORCE INDIA MERCEDES	1:36.358	1:34.789	1:35.148	19
11	19	Felipe Massa	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:35.603	1:35.155		9
12	26	Daniil Kvyat	TORO ROSSO	1:36.073	1:35.529		15
13	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	MCLAREN HONDA	1:36.286	1:35.641		14
14	8	Romain Grosjean	HAAS FERRARI	1:36.835	1:35.870		14
15	27	Nico Hulkenberg	RENAULT	1:35.740			3
16	9	Marcus Ericsson	SAUBER FERRARI	1:36.842			9
17	18	Lance Stroll	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:36.868			8
18	39	Brendon Hartley	TORO ROSSO	1:36.889			7
19	94	Pascal Wehrlein	SAUBER FERRARI	1:37.179			9
20	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	1:37.394			7