American Grand Prix: Qualifying



Delivering when it's most important is Sebastian Vettel who made up 0.7s in his very last lap in Q3 to tip his teammate Mark Webber to pole position at the USGP at Austin. When world champion Sebastian Vettel went into the last sector, his teammate Webber was miles ahead and set the fastest lap to be on provisional pole, but then a mighty quick last sector saw Vettel swoop a tenth off his time despite having a relatively slow lap (by fractions).

Romain Grosjean finished the top 3 with a good lap and will be "chasing the bull" in Texas. His replacement teammate Heikki Kovalinen made it to the top 10 for the Lotus team and will be starting P8. This is his best result since 2009.

Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez will start the race P7 and P10 respectively, much to the delight of their 'Home fans' considering Mixico is just a few hundred miles from the COTA. Jenson button gave monosyllabic answers after qualifying P16 (with 3 place penalty) making it easy us to read in between the lines - he was not happy. Nico Hulkenberg, whose future in F1 is under threat because of his weight has made it clear to all his potential teams why he deserves a seat in F1. After qualifying a very strong P4 for tomorrow's race, he will want to maintain that position and get Lotus or Force Id=ndia to sign him.

Last year's winner, Lewis Hamilton will start P5 on the grid after looking slightly off-paced all weekend. Nico will start lower down the grid  in 14th position. Mercedes, who're fighting to keep the 2nd place in the constructor's championship will require a good results to maintain the place from Ferrari, whose drivers will start P6 (Alonso) and P16 (Massa).

The star of the weekend, apart from Vettel with a mindblowing qualifying lap would be Valterri Bottas who at a point challenged the front runners, showing real pace after Williams upgraded his car with a different exhaust position, a much faster Coanda exhaust. He qualified P9 while Pastor Maldonado, who accused his team of tinkering the car for the worse, qualified P18.

1. Sebastian Vettel      Germany      Red Bull-Renault 1m 36.338s
2. Mark Webber           Australia      Red Bull-Renault 1m 36.441s
3. Romain Grosjean     France         Lotus-Renault 1m 37.155s
4. Nico Hulkenberg      Germany      Sauber-Ferrari 1m 37.296s
5. Lewis Hamilton        Britain          Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 37.345s
6. Fernando Alonso      Spain           Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 37.376s
7. Sergio Perez            Mexico         McLaren-Mercedes 1m 37.452s
8. Heikki Kovalainen    Finland         Lotus-Renault 1m 37.715s
9. Valtteri Bottas           Finland         Williams-Renault 1m 37.836s
10. Esteban Gutierrez*   Mexico         Sauber-Ferrari 1m 38.034s 

11. Daniel Ricciardo     Australia        Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 38.131s
12. Paul di Resta          Britain            Force India-Mercedes 1m 38.139s
13. Jenson Button**         Britain           McLaren-Mercedes 1m 38.217s*
14. Nico Rosberg          Germany        Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 38.364s
15. Felipe Massa           Brazil            Ferrari-Ferrari 1m 38.592s
16. Jean-Eric Vergne     France         Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m 38.696s

17. Adrian Sutil            Germany        Force India-Mercedes 1m 39.250s
18. Pastor Maldonado  Venezuela      Williams-Renault 1m 39.351s
19. Giedo van der Garde Holland       Caterham-Renault 1m 40.491s 
20. Jules Bianchi          France           Marussia-Cosworth 1m 40.528s
21. Charles Pic***             France           Caterham-Renault 1m 40.596s**
22. Max Chilton            Britain            Marussia-Cosworth 1m 41.401s

* - 10 place grid penalty for impeding
** - 3 place grid penalty for overtaking a car under red flags in FP1
***- 5 place grid penalty for changing gearbox

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