The temperature was only 19 degrees Celsius, but the track conditions were dry, when the qualifying at the Circuit of the Americas was kicked off. Ferrari had showed promising pace in the last free practice session, but everyone expected to see Mercedes' dominance in the qualifying. Sebastian went fastest at first, but soon the top spot was taken by the Mercedes ace Bottas. However, teammate Hamilton snatched the lead by three tenths, when there were ten minutes in the clock. The Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Ricciardo were 5th and 6th, half a second off the pace. The first segment proved dramatic for the flying Dutchman, as something broke in his RB14 after hitting the kerb in Turn 15. There seemed to be an issue with the rear-right suspension, and Verstappen managed only just to bring his car into the pits. Emotions were running high, as the technical failure ended the qualifying for the unfortunate Red Bull ace. The top six drivers -Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull- sat out the second runs, as there was no need to go out again. There were no surprise names in the knock-out zone. Both McLarens, both Williams and Sauber's Ericsson were out of the second segment. Ericsson's teammate Leclerc, on the other hand, stood out of the crowd by making it P13 in Q1.
The top teams' tyre strategy was interesting in Q2. Both Mercedes drivers came out on the red-walled super-softs, as expected. So did Red Bull's Ricciardo. Ferrari, on the other hand, sent Kimi out on the ultra-softs-softs, whilst Sebastian opted for the red-marked super-soft compound. Sebastian's tyre choice came down to the 3-place grid penalty, which he had been given for not slowing down sufficiently under the red flags in Friday's first practice session. Kimi went fastest, edging his teammate only by two tenths, despite the different tyre choice. Bottas was third, already eight tenths down on pace-setting Kimi. Hamilton had a very tame first attempt; the Briton was massive 1.1s off the pace, and had to resort to a second attempt after a cool-down lap. The second flyer was decent, and Hamilton jumped third, half a second down on Kimi. The Mercedes duo came out on the ultra-softs at the end of the second session, but didn't improve their lap times. The battle in the midfield was extremely tight. Renault's Hulkenberg was the last driver to make it through to the last segment. Teammate Sainz got knocked out of Q3 only by bitter two thousandths of a second! Along with the Spaniard, also Haas' Magnussen and the Toro Rosso duo of Gasly and Hartley were out of Q3. Due to the technical failure, Verstappen proved unable to set a time in Q2, and was therefore also out of the top ten. The top five drivers could be taken for granted -Kimi, Sebastian, Hamilton, Bottas and Ricciardo-, but the shining "best of the rest" in P6 was Sauber's Leclerc, which caught my eye. Haas' Grosjean made an impressive job as well, by being 7th fastest in Q2.
The third decisive session saw a hair-raising shootout for pole. The Red Team definitely didn't make it easy for the Silver Arrows. Hamilton took provisional pole, but only by 88 thousandths of a second! Sebastian showed top form, and he was determined to challenge the championship leader for pole. Bottas was third, only a tenth down on his teammate. Kimi was fourth, four tenths off the pace. Red Bull didn't have the pace to fight for pole, as Ricciardo was already almost a second down on the ultimate pace. The last minutes of the qualifying were absolutely breath-taking. Kimi had a flying second attempt, and the Iceman got every sector perfectly together, making it on the top! However, Kimi's joy lasted only for a fleeting moment, as Hamilton set the fastest lap time, robbing Kimi of the pole position. Sebastian, too was on flames on his last flyer, but the German ended up six hundredths of a second shy of Hamilton! Mercedes' and Ferrari's pace was very evenly matched, as the top three was separated by seven hundredths of a second only! Bottas in fourth was three tenths down on his teammate, and Ricciardo in fifth was massive 1.2s off the pace. Ocon qualified sixth for Force India and Hulkenberg 7th for Renault. Haas' Grosjean, Sauber's Leclerc and Force India's Perez rounded out the top ten.
Due to Sebastian's penalty, Kimi will start to the race from the front row, alongside title favourite Hamilton. Bottas and Ricciardo will start from the second row, as Sebastian has been dropped down to P5. Kimi will start on the softest rubber, whilst the other top five drivers are on the middle compound. If Kimi gets a dream start, he has every opportunity to challenge Hamilton for the lead. Sebastian has made many mistakes on the opening laps this season, because he has desperately wanted to get past his rivals right away. The situation is certainly difficult, as he needs to be patient but still aggressive, if he wants to keep his championship hopes alive. And I'm sure there will be frustrated and aggressive Verstappen starting from P18 today. I know it's going to be inevitable, that Hamilton will clinch his fifth world championship sooner or later, but I hope it won't happen today!
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