Hamilton sweeps to United States GP pole, continues perfect weekend

Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's United States Grand Prix from pole position after topping Formula 1 qualifying for the 11th time this season at the Circuit of The Americas, leading all three stages for Mercedes.

After finishing fastest in FP1, FP2 and FP3, Hamilton continued his perfect weekend at COTA through qualifying, turning in a fastest lap of 1:33.108 to finish two-tenths of a second clear of F1 title rival Sebastian Vettel in Q3.

Hamilton's hopes of wrapping up the F1 drivers' title this weekend in Austin took a hit after Vettel was able to bounce back late in qualifying to take second, splitting the Mercedes drivers as Valtteri Bottas struggled late on, taking third.

Daniel Ricciardo led Red Bull's charge in fourth as teammate Max Verstappen took sixth, with the pair being split by Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. Verstappen will drop back down the order due to a grid penalty, lifting Esteban Ocon to the third row of the grid for Force India.

Carlos Sainz Jr. enjoyed an impressive start to life with Renault, qualifying eighth ahead of McLaren's Fernando Alonso, while Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10 in qualifying in the second Force India.

Felipe Massa was shuffled out of qualifying after a flurry of late times in Q2 left the Brazilian 11th, less than half a tenth of a second off a Q3 spot. The Williams driver will start ahead of Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat, who took P12 in his first qualifying session for over a month ahead of McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne.

Romain Grosjean struggled to 14th for Haas ahead of Renault's Nico Hulkenberg, who was beaten by a teammate in qualifying for the first time this season after taking no part in Q2 due to his pending grid penalty, leaving him 15th.

Marcus Ericsson came within just seven-thousandths of a second of making it through to Q2, finishing 16th for Sauber ahead of Lance Stroll, who sparked fury from Grosjean after forcing the Frenchman onto the grass when on a hot lap, piquing the interest of the stewards in the process.

Brendon Hartley qualified 18th for his F1 debut, seven-tenths of a second down on Kvyat in the sister Toro Rosso, but will start the race from last thanks to a grid penalty for a number of power unit changes. His demotion lifts Pascal Wehrlein and Kevin Magnussen up the order, with the pair provisionally filling out the back row in qualifying.