Lewis Hamilton beat Sebastian Vettel to pole position for this weekend’s United States Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.
Hamilton claimed his eleventh pole of the year, comfortably beating title rival Vettel by two tenths, the Mercedes driver setting his 1:33.108s best early in Qualifying 3 and unable to beat his own time with his final effort.
Vettel split a provisional Mercedes front-row lockout with his final lap to move up a spot into second on the grid to bump Valtteri Bottas to third.
Daniel Ricciardo got the better of his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen to start fourth with the Dutchman sixth, Kimi Raikkonen between the two Red Bulls for Ferrari.
Verstappen will pick up a penalty following an engine change and will start further down the grid as a result.
Also in the top ten was Carlos Sainz on his Renault debut, getting the better of Nico Hulkenberg who elected to sit out Qualifying 2 as he was eliminated from the session.
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Felipe Massa was unlucky to miss out on a Qualifying 3 berth in the leading Williams, while Daniil Kvyat, Stoffel Vandoorne and Romain Grosjean also missed the cut.
Falling victim in Qualifying 1 was Marcus Ericsson, Lance Stroll, Toro Rosso debutant Brendon Hartley, Pascal Wehrlein and Kevin Magnussen, who qualified the Haas on last.
A host of post-qualifying penalties will change the order, as could investigations into blocking for Magnussen and Stroll.
The 56-lap United States Grand Prix gets underway at 06:00 AEDT Monday morning.
Result: United States Formula 1 Grand Prix Qualifying
| Position | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m33.108s | |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1m33.347s | 0.239s |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1m33.568s | 0.460s |
| 4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull/Renault | 1m33.577s | 0.469s |
| 5 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1m33.577s | 0.469s |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m33.658s | 0.550s |
| 7 | Esteban Ocon | Force India/Mercedes | 1m34.647s | 1.539s |
| 8 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Renault | 1m34.852s | 1.744s |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1m35.007s | 1.899s |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | Force India/Mercedes | 1m35.148s | 2.040s |
| 11 | Felipe Massa | Williams/Mercedes | 1m35.155s | 1.718s |
| 12 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso/Renault | 1m35.529s | 2.092s |
| 13 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren/Honda | 1m35.641s | 2.204s |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean | Haas/Ferrari | 1m35.870s | 2.433s |
| 15 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | ||
| 16 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m36.842s | 2.020s |
| 17 | Lance Stroll | Williams/Mercedes | 1m36.868s | 2.046s |
| 18 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso/Renault | 1m36.889s | 2.067s |
| 19 | Pascal Wehrlein | Sauber/Ferrari | 1m37.179s | 2.357s |
| 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas/Ferrari | 1m37.394s | 2.572s |
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