It was just written in the stars, wasn’t it? With Vettel getting slapped with grid penalties, it was only certain that Hamilton was going to take further advantage of the situation and he did.
In Q3, when it really mattered , Hamilton stepped up to the plate and dished out two sublime laps in order to clinch pole position for raceday on Sunday.
Ferrari had their mojo back with the rain not making an appearance and Vettel managed to come extremely close to Hamilton, losing out by just 0.061 seconds.
Vettel though will start from P5 because of the grid penalty that he received for the little incident in FP1, where he hadn’t slowed down in time during a red flag period.
Vettel will now have to ensure that he at least finishes second in order to take the title race to Mexico.(i.e if Hamilton wins).
Hamilton was ecstatic that he managed to secure pole position after putting in a brilliant second lap in Q3, something that he hadn’t done all season.
Vettel too was happy that Ferrari had rediscovered their pace, but accepted that it will be tough work tomorrow.
Raikkonen secured P3 and was happy with how qualifying turned out.
This is how Twitter reacted:
Hamilton on #USGP pole, #F1 title rival Vettel pushes him hard but must start fifth. Full report/starting grid:https://t.co/uLnIyt85Do
— Autosport (@autosport) October 20, 2018
HAMILTON: "That was close! The first [Q3] lap was decent… the second was just that little bit better… I'm really happy with that" #USGP 🇺🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/diEJ8WhqSv
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 20, 2018
BREAKING: @LewisHamilton storms to pole in Austin! Vettel qualifies second but will start the race from P5 due to his penalty from Friday #USGP 🇺🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/a95DodOxWm
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 20, 2018
YES!! YES!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!
Pole position for @LewisHamilton at @COTA! What a lap! 👏👏#USGP 🇺🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/0lmAF5Scm6
— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) October 20, 2018
Qualifying party modes visualised as Lewis Hamilton takes his 9th pole of the season. #formula1 #unitedstatesgrandprix #f1 pic.twitter.com/Xo1wKQoMDg
— The Circus (@Circus_F1comic) October 20, 2018
So close, but ours! @MercedesAMGF1 @LewisHamilton pic.twitter.com/TmnfD0HbEh
— Roman Smutny (@roman_smutny) October 20, 2018
VETTEL: "It was pretty close, it's always a shame when you miss out by that little bit of time, just six hundredths" #USGP 🇺🇸 #F1 pic.twitter.com/s5wVtRCMX3
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 20, 2018
Hamilton Pole
Vettel 0.061 sec gap
Raikkonen 0.070 sec gap
How does this gsp makes us excited
tomorrow?#F1 #USGP pic.twitter.com/aU0G4bsfUu— 曽我 剛史(Tsuyoshi Soga) (@kzfcy48) October 20, 2018
These two #USGP #Quali #Q3 pic.twitter.com/vw3IVDPkZE
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) October 20, 2018
Hamilton on pole, Raikkonen 2nd, Bottas 3rd, Ricciardo 4th, Vettel 5th after penalty
Hamilton will win world title if he wins on Sunday and Vettel comes 3rd or worse.— SirChuks (@occp1967) October 20, 2018
