After being removed from the racing calendar last year because of the COVID pandemic, United States Grand Prix returns this season.
So let’s take a look at the winners and losers that emerged from the Saturday qualifying session at the Circuit of The Americas.
After a sudden upsurge in pace by Mercedes in recent times, Red Bull responded to their rivals after Max Verstappen secured his ninth pole position of the season, beating his title rival Lewis Hamilton by 0.209 seconds.
Hamilton, who was favorite to secure the pole position, failed to match the pace of Red Bull and got outpaced by Verstappen by two-tenths of a second. In addition, it was the first time Mercedes have been beaten to pole in Austin since 2013.
Sergio Perez, who was on the provisional pole before the final runs in Q3, missed out on a front-row start alongside his teammate or even a maiden pole position after rain hindered his flying lap. Checo qualified P3 just 0.015s behind Hamilton.
After topping the FP1 session, Valtteri Bottas failed to replicate his practice performance in qualifying and finished P4. However, the Finnish driver will receive 5 place grid penalty after taking the sixth ICE of the season.
Daniel Ricciardo did an impressive job at the COTA qualifying session. He got his lap time deleted in Q3 but made a great comeback and qualified P7. The Honey Badger even managed to out-qualify his teammate, Lando Norris.