Carlos Sainz grabbed his first pole position in Austin, pipping his team mate by less than a tenth of a second as newly crowned world champion Max Verstappen had to settle for third on a blustery day in Austin. But with grid penalties to follow for Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez, there will be some reshuffling overnight that means a mixed up grid for the race. Here are the best facts and stats from qualifying at the Circuit of The Americas…
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Carlos Sainz grabbed Ferrari’s first ever pole position at COTA.
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The Spaniard took his third ever career pole.
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He is also seeking his first ever top-five finish at this track.
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Max Verstappen will start second, with the driver starting from P2 having led the first lap here in four of the last six races.
READ MORE: Sainz takes pole for the 2022 United States Grand Prix ahead of Verstappen
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Lewis Hamilton will start third, matching his best starting slot of the year from Singapore.
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George Russell starts fourth, the first time this season Mercedes have both cars in the top four on the grid.
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Lance Stroll qualified seventh and starts fifth, to tie Aston Martin’s best ever starting slot, after Sebastian Vettel’s P5 at Spa last season.
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The Canadian reaches Q3 for only the third time in 2022 but the second time on American soil.
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Charles Leclerc has never won a race from below the front row, and has never finished on the podium from lower than seventh on the grid.
READ MORE: Leclerc and Alonso receive grid penalties at COTA
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Sergio Perez has three career podium finishes from outside the top eight on the grid, which all came for Sauber in 2012.
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Lando Norris only made Q3 as a result of Zhou Guanyu’s deleted lap time at the end of Q2.
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Alex Albon missed out on Q3 by just 0.027s.
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Vettel has only made Q3 once in the last 11 races, which was last time out at Suzuka.
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Zhou’s late Q2 lap time was deleted – but had it not been, it would have been two Alfa cars in the top 10 for the first time this season.
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Haas lost both cars in Q1 for the fourth time this year, but having done so at Silverstone, they managed to score double points.
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Daniel Ricciardo suffered his third Q1 elimination in the last five races.
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Esteban Ocon qualified fifth in Suzuka but dropped out in Q1 today.
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Mick Schumacher was out in Q1 for just the second time in seven races.