Carlos Sainz has qualified on pole under a scorching Texas sun for the United States Grand Prix. He will start alongside Max Verstappen after the second-fastest Charles Leclerc receives a 10 place grid penalty for taking a new turbo charger and ICE.
In what was a relatively drama-free qualifying session, albeit in hot and windy conditions, Sainz remained quick and clean in an impressive effort to take pole on pace alone.
It promises to be a Grand Prix with overtakes aplenty as grid penalties are applied to a number of drivers. This includes Sergio Perez and Leclerc, who are locked in their own battle for second place in the 2022 Drivers Championship.
It was also a bitter-sweet affair for Red Bull, the passing of team founder and co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz leaving many of the team visibly distressed.
It will be a Mercedes lockout on the second row after Perez takes his five place grid penalty, Hamilton out-qualifying teammate George Russell to start third.
Lance Stroll will start fifth on the grid next to Lando Norris whist Valterri Bottas begins seventh. Alex Albon will begin alongside the Alfa Romeo, despite failing to make Q3, after grid penalties are applied to three drivers ahead.
After taking a new engine and only qualifying fourth fastest, Perez will start in ninth alongside Sebastien Vettel, who was also eliminated in Q2.
Pierre Gasly will begin the United States Grand Prix in 11th next to the relegated Leclerc.
Yuki Tsunoda gets the jump on Fernando Alonso from 13th, who qualified ninth fastest but receives a five-place penalty to start 14th.
Kevin Magnussen was the better Haas in a disappointing home Grand Prix qualifying effort. He will start 15th after Zhou Guanyu is yet another with a five-place grid penalty.
The McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo will start alongside the Haas, yet another disappointing qualifying effort from the Australian in one of his favourite races seeing him fail to progress from Q1.
He did, however, out-qualify Esteban Ocon whose tough qualifying form of late continued. He will start the event in 17th alongside the Haas of Mick Schumacher.
Schumacher was the only driver to become unstuck in qualifying, a spin as he set his fast lap in Q1 bringing an early end to his day.
After his grid penalty, Guanyu will start on the back row with only Nicholas Latifi behind him.
It was a disappointing result for the Chinese driver, who had set a time to progress to Q3 at the expense of Norris. Track limits unfortunately came into play, his lap time deleted and putting Norris into Q3 at his expense.
The United States Grand Prix begins at 8am tomorrow and will be shown live on Spark Sports.
