Hamilton beats Rosberg to Austin pole
ByAutoSport
Published 22/10/2016 at 19:52 GMT
Lewis Hamilton beat Formula 1 title rival Nico Rosberg to pole position for the United States Grand Prix, as Mercedes stretched out an advantage over the opposition in qualifying.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Red Bull looked fast in free practice, but it couldn't live with Mercedes in qualifying, where Hamilton pumped in a stunning 1m34.999s lap to bag pole.
The reigning world champion did his damage through the first sector, where he was almost three tenths faster than Rosberg, who ran wide at Turn 1 on both of his Q3 laps.
Rosberg, who briefly held top spot due to finishing his lap before his team-mate, was still fast enough to set the second quickest time, almost three tenths clear of Daniel Ricciardo in the best of the Red Bulls.
Max Verstappen was fourth, ahead of Ferrari duo Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel.
The Mercedes drivers and Verstappen will start the race on soft tyres after all making it through Q2 on that compound.
Nico Hulkenberg was seventh fastest for Force India, well clear of the remaining top 10 runners.
Hulkenberg was in superb form, lapping inside the top six in the first two segments of the session.
He was also the only non-Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari driver to break into the 1m36s.
Williams pair Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa headed an impressive performance from the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz Jr in rounding out the top 10.
Hulkenberg's Force India team-mate Sergio Perez missed out on making Q3 by just over a tenth of a second.
Fernando Alonso's McLaren-Honda was six hundredths of a second further back in 12th, ahead of the second Toro Rosso of newly re-signed Daniil Kvyat, Esteban Gutierrez's Haas, and Jolyon Palmer's Renault.
Marcus Ericsson completed a cursory run on old tyres in Q2 so wound up 16th fastest, after lapping quicker than both Gutierrez and Palmer in Q1.
Palmer complained about his final Q1 run being a "fucking disaster" as he held up Jenson Button's McLaren on his out-lap, but the Renault still made it through to Q2.
Button was furious to drop out in Q1, after encountering the Renault entering the final corner of his best lap.
The 2009 world champion ended up a lowly 19th in his McLaren-Honda, fractionally behind Romain Grosjean's Haas and Kevin Magnussen's Renault, which both also missed the cut.
Pascal Wehrlein recovered from binning his Manor in the gravel in final practice to qualify 20th fastest, ahead of Felipe Nasr - who complained about his Sauber's brakes - and Manor team-mate Esteban Ocon.
QUALIFYING RESULT
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