Bottas clinches crucial United States GP pole position.

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas claimed a crucial pole position in qualifying for the United States GP at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Valtteri Bottas #77 Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W10 EQ Power+ Formula 1 Emirates United States Grand Prix 2019 Circuit of the Americas Austin Texas Image credit to LAT Sutton Images Bottas United States GP Qualifying Bottas Mercedes — Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+, in action during qualifying at the Formula 1 Emirates United States Grand Prix 2019, Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas. Image credit to LAT/Sutton Images.

Bottas’ initial run in the third qualifying segment where he posted the benchmark of a 1:32.029 was enough for the Finn to clinch his eleventh-career pole.

Neither he or Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who was just 0.012 seconds slower, were able to improve on their final flyers but the latter’s initial lap was good enough for a spot on the front row of the grid.

Bottas remains the only driver on the grid that can halt Mercedes’ team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s chance of becoming a sixth World Driver’s Champion and must win the United States GP.

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen did improve on his second attempt to secure third place, just 0.067 adrift of Bottas’ United States GP qualifying pole benchmark time.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also found time on his effort but wound up 0.108 seconds adrift in fourth.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton aborted his final flyer after losing time in the middle sector, meaning the Briton ended up fifth and 0.292 seconds off of team-mate Bottas’ United States GP qualifying pole benchmark.

Hamilton only requires an eighth-placed finish in the race to wrap up his sixth world title crown.

The second Red Bull of Alexander Albon qualified sixth fastest and 0.292 adrift of Bottas’ United States GP qualifying pole time.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz benefited from having two sets of fresh soft rubber in Q3 due to completing only one flyer in the initial qualifying stage to take seventh place with a lap three tenths off of Albon.

Sainz’ team-mate Lando Norris, also achieved a place on the fourth-row of the grid and nearly three tenths slower than the Spaniard.

Renault F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo, who completed his single Q3 flyer on a clear track before the final rush was ninth on the time-sheets and 1.459 seconds adrift of Bottas’ United States GP qualifying benchmark pole time and over a tenth quicker than Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly who rounded out the top ten.

The Ferrari and Mercedes drivers will start the United States Grand Prix on the C3 yellow-branded mediums after using that rubber for their Q2 efforts, along with Verstappen – with the rest of the top 10 using the C4 softs.

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was the fastest of the Q2 eliminatees in 11th place after lapping only a tenth off of Gasly.

The German briefly climbed into the top ten as he completed his final hot lap, only to be knocked out by team-mate Ricciardo.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen qualified 12th after failing to improve on his second flyer, wounding up 0.010 quicker than Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat – who’s time was originally put the Russian 11th fastest was deleted due to exceeding track limits.

Racing Point’s Lance Stroll took 14th and over half a tenth faster than Haas F1 Team’s 15th-placed Romain Grosjean.

Alfa Romeo Racing duo Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen ended qualifying in 16th and 17th respectively.

The two were in the drop zone after their intial runs, with Raikkonen momentarily jumping to 15th ahead of Gasly before team-mate Giovinazzi moved in-front thanks to his better pace in the second sector.

But Gasly then set a time that was good enough to send the pairing back into the bottom five.

The two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica qualified in 18th and the rear respectively with Racing Point’s Sergio Perez sandwiched in-between.

Perez however will be starting the United States GP from the pit-lane after failing to weigh his RP19 racer during Free Practice 2 on Friday.

Formula 1 Emirates United States Grand Prix 2019 Starting Grid

POS	DRIVER	CAR	TIME	GAP
1	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	1m32.029s	–
2	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	1m32.041s	0.012s
3	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	1m32.096s	0.067s
4	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari	1m32.137s	0.108s
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	1m32.321s	0.292s
6	Alexander Albon	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	1m32.548s	0.519s
7	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	1m32.847s	0.818s
8	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	1m33.175s	1.146s
9	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team	1m33.488s	1.459s
10	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	1m33.601s	1.572s
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault F1 Team	1m33.815s	–
12	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	1m33.979s	–
13	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	1m33.989s	–
14	Lance Stroll	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	1m34.100s	–
15	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	1m34.158s	–
16	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing	1m34.226s	–
17	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo Racing	1m34.369s	–
18	George Russell	ROKiT Williams Racing	1m35.372s	–
19	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing	1m35.889s	–
20	Sergio Perez	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	1m35.808s	–

Earlier in Free Practice 3, Verstappen ended the session fastest and 0.218 seconds over Vettel with Norris third, and Mercedes pairing Bottas and Hamilton completing the top five. You can see the full classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/races/1018/united-states/practice-3.html

You can catch up on Free Practice 2 & 1, F1 Newsbites – 2021 Rules & Regulations Special Edition as well as this weekend’s race preview at the following links:

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@Max33Verstappen pips #Vettel in #UnitedStatesGP FP1. #F1 #USGP

#F1 Newsbites – 2021 Rules & Regulations Edition. #F12021 @F1

@F1 @Emirates #UnitedStatesGP 2019 Preview – #USGP #F1 @COTA