Verstappen nips Hamilton
AUSTIN (AFP) — Max Verstappen in a Red Bull stormed to pole position for the US Grand Prix on Saturday, edging out title rival and Mercedes’ world champion Lewis Hamilton in front of an estimated crowd of 120,000 people.
Verstappen, who leads Hamilton by six points in the championship race, claimed his ninth pole of 2021 with a time of 1 minute 32.910 seconds, just two tenths faster than the British driver.
Sergio Perez, in the second Red Bull, was third, only 0.15 seconds behind Hamilton.
Valtteri Bottas, in the other Mercedes, was fourth quickest, but will drop to ninth on the gird for Sunday’s race after changing his engine.
“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,” Verstappen said.
On Sunday, organizers say the crowd figure at the Circuit of the Americas will swell to 140,000 to see Verstappen and Hamilton go head-to-head and side-by-side. “I guess that’s that people like,” said the Dutch driver. “From here onwards we hope to have a good start and work together as a team and have the best possible result.”
Hamilton has won five of the eight races held at the Austin track since its 2012 debut.
From here onwards we hope to have a good start and work together as a team and have the best possible result.
He also wrapped up world titles at the Texan circuit in 2015 and 2019.
Bottas was victorious once, in the last event held in 2019, before the 2020 race was dropped from the schedule due to the pandemic.
Verstappen has finished fourth, third and second. “I gave it everything today — it was a bit of a struggle through qualifying,” Hamilton said.
“I think from P1 onwards we kind of fell back a little bit and the Red Bull guys were incredibly quick.”