Raging Bull grabs pole from champ

MAX Verstappen in a Red Bull stormed to pole position for the US Grand Prix on Sunday, edging out 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 1min 32.910sec, just two-tenths faster than the British driver. Sergio Perez, in the second Red Bull, was third, only 0.15sec behind Hamilton.

Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) was fourth quickest, but will drop to ninth on the grid for Monday’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 Monday, organisers 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,” the Dutch driver said.

“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.

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.