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Formula 1 United States GP

F1 United States GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 and qualifying

Saturday's F1 action from the COTA circuit in Texas

By: Haydn Cobb, Tom Howard

Stopped

Summary

- Verstappen takes pole position for the US Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver snatches pole from Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton by 0.209s
- First time Mercedes not on pole in Austin since the start of the hybrid era  
- Verstappen fastest in Q2. Eliminated: Ocon (Alpine), Vettel (Aston Martin), Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo), Alonso (Alpine) and Russell (Williams)
- Leclerc tops Q1. Eliminated: Stroll (Aston Martin), Latifi (Williams), Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo), Schumacher (Haas) and Mazepin (Haas)
- Bottas set for five-place grid drop for engine change penalty
- Alonso takes full new power unit before FP3 and will start race from the back of the gird
- Vettel and Russell to also start from the back due to full power unit change penalties

Leaderboard
1. Verstappen, Red Bull
2. Hamilton, Mercedes
3. Perez, Red Bull
4. Bottas, Mercedes 
5. Leclerc, Ferrari 
6. Sainz, Ferrari 
7. Ricciardo, McLaren
8. Norris, McLaren
9. Gasly, AlphaTauri
10. Tsunoda, AlphaTauri
Checkered flag
With the race nicely set up for tomorrow we'll tap out for tonight, but be sure to return for the main event. The race starts at 8pm BST (2pm local time) on Sunday and it looks a good'un.
Breaking news
Need a full recap on everything that happened in qualifying for the United States GP? Look no further: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-united-states-gp-verstappen-beats-hamilton-to-pole-position/6705118/
So, a front row of Verstappen and Hamilton. That's all the billing Sunday's race needs.
Quote
Hamilton on qualifying P2: "It was a bit of a struggle through qualifying and I think from FP1 we fell back a little bit. I was happy with my lap, you can always improve, but I think I got everything out of my lap."
Quote
Perez on his P3: "We were really close with that final lap. My final lap wasn't as good, I think the rain hit me in the final sector and I lost some grip in the final two corners and saw my delta drop."
Quote

Verstappen on his pole: "In Q3 my first lap wasn't amazing but in the final lap it started drizzling in the final sector so I wasn't sure if I could hold on to my lap time but it came together."

 
That is Verstappen's ninth pole of the season and first in the United States. It also marks the first time Mercedes won't start on pole in the V6 hybrid era at COTA.

Bottas ends qualifying fourth but with his five-place grid drop he will start the race from ninth place. That pushes Leclerc to fourth ahead of Sainz, Ricciardo, Norris and Gasly.

Stopwatch
Verstappen takes pole position for the United States Grand Prix! A 1m32.910s beats Hamilton by 0.209s! Perez can't improve by the same rate and drops to third place.
Stopwatch
...Bottas fails to improve, while Hamilton goes provisional pole with a 1m33.119s. What can Red Bull do?
Q3 final lap time is here, Bottas is leading team-mate Hamilton on the track...
Quote
"If any rain arrives it will be at Turn 1 first. If it arrives it will be either class 1 or class 2," Norris is told over McLaren team radio. What's class 1 rain? Light drizzle?
A pleasing two by two formation has formed in the provisional top 10 qualifying places: Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and AlphaTauri in that order.
It is almost hard to believe Perez has never scored an F1 pole before. Could today be the day? Final Q3 runs coming up.
Stopwatch
Perez is on provisional pole! He beats Verstappen's effort by just 0.019s. Both Red Bulls are over a quarter of a second faster than the Mercedes pair. Blimey.
Stopwatch
And Bottas duly beats that with a 1m33.475s. What can the Red Bulls do in response?
Stopwatch
No tow for Hamilton on his first Q3 effort as he's first in the train and sets the target of 1m33.564s.
Quote
"The wind has picked up," Hamilton is told over his Mercedes team radio. The cloud cover has also built up over the last few minutes and that's seen the track temperature dip ever so slightly. First Q3 laps coming up.
Eight of the 10 drivers in this pole shootout are already out on track. Just Verstappen and Perez the late comers. Or tardy, as they say in this part of the world.
Green flag
Right, here we go for Q3.

Vettel calls his qualifying "perfect" over team radio as it means he'll start ahead of Alonso and Russell at the back. It is the small wins, I guess.

Out in Q2: P11 Ocon, P12 Vettel, P13 Giovinazzi, P14 Alonso, P15 Russell. Don't forget that Vettel, Alonso and Russell will all serve back of the grid penalties for this race.

Checkered flag
Tsunoda pushes out Ocon to take P10 and that final Q3 spot by over a couple of tenths. Good work by the AlphaTauri driver but he did have the soft tyre advantage as Ocon gambled on the mediums.
Ricciardo goes P9 with a 1m34.643s so he'll be sweating on his Q3 place as the chequered flag is readied.
Perez puts in a 1m34.178s to go P7. It is a good lap, but not a great lap as he remains at risk from dropping out in this session.
Ah, Perez disrupts the peace as he heads out on the mediums having lost his first lap to track limits.
In this quick pause in the Q2 action, we'll confirm the Stroll vs Mazepin incident will also not be investigated by the stewards.
Out of those who did complete their first Q2 run on the softs, Sainz has slotted into P6, so he is the outlier in terms of race strategy if he makes it into Q3.
Stopwatch
Verstappen leads the first Q2 runs with a 1m33.464s, over a quarter of a second faster than Hamilton, which is quite a margin.
We take it back, Perez is on the mediums rather than softs, but his first lap won't matter as he went wide at Turn 19. Ricciardo has also lost his lap for track limits at Turn 9.