2021 USA Grand Prix qualification report and highlights: Verstappen beats Hamilton with sensational final lap in Austin. to the pole position

Max Verstappen reacted to a bold round from title rival Lewis Hamilton and took pole position at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 120,000 sold out …

Verstappen looked fast in the final practice session – his Red Bull team seemed to have made great strides overnight – and continued to do so until qualifying, where he absorbed the pressure from Hamilton, taking pole in a time of 1: 32.910 minutes to fetch.

WATCH: Mercedes rear end movement is the hot topic at COTA – the Tech Talk team explains what it’s about

Mercedes came to Austin after taking every pole during the hybrid turbo era that began in 2014.

Somehow, Hamilton found more pace in the final runs of Q3 and was a quarter of a second ahead after two sectors but lost time in the third and while taking provisional pole by a fraction, Verstappen ran faster behind him.

Although it started to rain slightly in the last few seconds, Verstappen kept his foot and took the momentum through the final corners to pole position, with his team-mate Sergio Perez finishing third.

Valtteri Bottas’s second Mercedes finished fourth, but will drop to ninth place due to a five-place penalty for exceeding its engine size. This means that Charles Leclerc moves up one place to fourth place, while the Ferrari driver displaces his team-mate Carlos Sainz.

Daniel Ricciardo was the leading McLaren in eighth place, ahead of teammate Lando Norris, with AlphaTauri duo Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda finishing in the top 10.

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Qualifying highlights: 2021 United States Grand Prix

WHEN IT HAPPENED

Q1 – Leclerc drives fastest as Red Bull Edge Mercedes

Daniel Ricciardo, fresh after taking his hero Dale Earnhardt’s legendary Nascar from 1984 for a spin at the start of the day, set the early pace of Verstappen and Norris as the Mercedes duo seemed to lack the pace to end up sharp exist.

WATCH: Ricciardo gets behind the wheel of Dale Earnhardt Sr’s NASCAR stock car in Texas

Both Red Bulls did a cool-off lap before heading out again, with Verstappen setting the fastest time, 0.017 seconds ahead of Perez, who kept his teammates honest all weekend.

Mercedes sent Hamilton and Bottas for a second run on used soft tires and although they improved they stayed outside the top 5. And moments before the end, Leclerc gave Ferrari P1 0.19 seconds ahead as the track ramped up.

At the other end of the ranking, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen were in the drop zone. Alonso got out on his last lap and that demoted Lance Stroll, who had canceled a lap earlier in the session and couldn’t react.

He was supported in the drop zone by Nicholas Latifi, Raikkonen, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin – Antonio Giovinazzi survived a spin on his last lap and became the only Alfa Romeo to enter the next segment of qualifying.

KO: Stroll, Latifi, Raikkonen, Schumacher, Mazepin

Pole in Austin is Verstappens ninth of the year and Red Bull’s first start in the front row in the US since 2013

Q2 – Verstappen shines with a cracking round

Medium-sized tires were the order of the day for Mercedes and Red Bull, although the teams were careful not to start the race with the soft tire, which should not last very long under racing conditions.

Verstappen set a breakneck pace to top the charts, 0.333 seconds faster than Hamilton, with Norris, Leclerc, Bottas and Sainz completing the top 6. Perez and Ricciardo put themselves under pressure after exceeding the track limit, which resulted in the cancellation of their lap times.

They left again, with Perez finishing seventh and Ricciardo ninth, pushing Tsunoda into the drop zone. But the Japanese was already on a lap that looked strong and squeaked in tenth in the final section of qualifying for the second race in a row.

This left Esteban Ocon – who had a tow from Alonso – in 11th place, while Vettel only completed one run and ended up in 12th place. However, he will go to the bottom of the grid due to a number of penalties for changing engine components.

Giovinazzi was 13th ahead of Alonso – who, like Vettel, will start from behind due to engine penalties – and Russell, whose last lap was canceled because the track limit was exceeded.

Eliminated: Ocon, Vettel, Giovinazzi, Alonso, Russell

Perez missed out on Verstappen in the front row by just 0.015 seconds

Q3 – Verstappen wins gigantic battle with Hamilton

Mercedes went out early, Bottas took provisional pole position, 0.089 seconds faster than Hamilton, while Norris took third place.

But Perez’s first run was enough to get him to the top of the pile, 0.19 seconds ahead of Verstappen when Red Bull led the front row with one final run to go.

Hamilton found something special on his second attempt and was well on his way to setting a challenging goal for Verstappen. But he lost two tenths in the last sector and only slipped to P1.

Verstappen took the opportunity to take his fourth pole position in six races, the ninth of the season and Red Bull’s first start in Austin since 2013 in the front row.

Perez only secured his third top-three start in 2021 after missing the front row by just 0.015 seconds.

With Sainz moving up to fifth, Ferrari will have two cars in the top five on the grid for the first time since Baku, 11 races ago.

Hamilton’s pole was stolen from him in the last few seconds after losing two tenths of a second in the last sector

The key quote

“It was pretty exciting out there,” said Pole-Sitter Verstappen. “In Q3 my first lap wasn’t great, and on the last lap it started to spit too – like a bit of drizzle especially in the last sector – so I wasn’t sure if I would keep my lap time. But it was enough and of course it was a very strong performance to set the lap time and to be on pole position – but also to be on P1 and P3 as a team.

What’s next?

The United States Grand Prix begins at 1400 local time, which is 1900 UTC. Verstappen is eight meters ahead of Hamilton, but his title rival has the inside line at Turn 1. Who will prevail?