Verstappen left his best lap until the very end of Q3 as he pumped in a 1m32.910s, putting him 0.2✃🏅09s clear of Hamilton as he claimed his ninth pole of the season. 

It was Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez who had set the initial pace after the o🐠pening runs of the pole shootout, but the Mexican ended up slipping down to third come the end of the 💦session as he was denied a maiden pole.

With Ve🐎rstappen and Hamilton sharing the front-row for the seventh time this season, it has set up a tantalising prospect for the first race at Austin in two years, which is expected to be attended by a capacity 140,000-strong crowd. 

The result marks the first ti🐽me in the V6 hybrid era that Mercedes has been beaten to pole at the Circuit of the Americas. 

Valtteri Bottas was unable to match the pace of Mercedes teammate Ha💦milton as he could only manage the fourth-quickest time, some half a second adrift. 

The Finn will start Sunday’s race from ninth on the grid after hꦐis five-place penalty for an engine change is applied. 

Charles Leclerc led Ferrari’s charge in fifth ahead of teammate Caꦇrlos Sainz, with both out qualifying the McLaren pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris. 

The top-10 order was completed by the AlphaTauris of Pierre G▨asly and Yuki Tsunoda, who secured his second consecutive Q3 appearance with a strong qualifying showing. 

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was knocked out of a spot in Q3 by Tsunoda late on as he waಞs left to settl🅠e with 11th ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who will drop to the back of the grid after Aston Martin elected to fit a new engine in his car. 

Having snuck into Q2 de🐎spite having a big spin at the end of the opening session, Antonio ♕Giovinazzi wound up 13th-fastest for Alfa Romeo. 

Next up came Fernando Alonso’s Alpine and the Williams of George Russell in 14t🎃h and 15th, with both drivers set to join Vettel in starting from the back due to engine penal✱ties. 

Vettel will line up ahead of Alonso and Russell on🍃 the grid co𓂃urtesy of his faster lap time in qualifying.

Lance Stroll was a tenth short of progressing out of Q1 as he could only manage a time good enough for 16th.🐈 

The Aston Martin driver was joined in the elimination zone by the Will♋iams of Nicholas Latifi, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen and the Haas duo of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin. 

Schumacher once again got the better of his teammate in quali❀fying, with Mazepin only able to complete one lap time that did not fall foul of track 💖limits. 

Full results from qualifying at the 2021 F1 United States Grand Prix.