In winning the pole, Valtteri Bottas set a course record for the fastest time. Hamilton blamed himself (not the car) for finishing fifth.
AUSTIN, Texas—Saturday, November 2nd—Lewis Hamilton only needs a few points to clinch his sixth world title, but on Saturday afternoon, it what his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, who stole the show–securing his 11th career pole with a 1:32:029. Bottas finished just ahead of Sebastian Vettel (by 0.012 seconds). Max Verstappen was third.
“Yeah, really happy about that. It was a nice lap at the beginning of Q3, and to get those kinds of laps on a track like this is a good feeling,” Bottas said afterward. “Yesterday was tricky. There were a few things wrong with my car, so good work this morning to find all the details this morning and what I needed to focus on. I found what I needed to do in Q3.
The Finn’s best lap was also a track record. Other drivers were able to get close to Bottas’ best lap, but none was able to match it. To keep Hamilton from winning the title, Bottas must win the race on Sunday with Hamilton finishing no better than at the back of the top ten.
A big surprise occurred in the opening session when McLaren’s Lando Norris set a lap time of 1:33:353 and was temporarily the fastest. But Charles Leclerc bettered that time in the following session. Still, by that time, both Alfa Romeos, Williams, Sergio Perez, Dani Kvyat, Nico Hulkenberg, and two of the American Haas F1 drivers–Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen–were eliminated from advancing to the final session.
For the drivers who did, Leclerc ended up fourth. Hamilton took fifth in the most disappointing qualifying session of his career at this circuit.
Hamilton: It was nothing to do with the car. It was just me. I just didn’t pull the laps together today. Clearly, the car had the capability to be on the front row, but I just didn’t do it today. It was my fault, but I will try and rectify it tomorrow.
Alex Albon finished in sixth with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris taking seventh and eighth, respectively. Daniel Ricciardo followed in ninth in a good performance for Renault. Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten in his Toro Rosso.
Bottas was fortunate that nobody could challenge him. “The last [lap] I was losing grip overall, so I’m glad nobody could improve in the end.”
