Hamilton beats Ferrari to pole position in Austin!

Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, as the Brit looks to close out the 2018 drivers' championship during the Grand Prix on Sunday.

Q1

The first of the three sessions was all about Red Bull's reliability issues. Max Verstappen drove on the kerbstones on the exit of turn 15 and broke the wishbone of the suspension of his right-rear wheel. He did manage to put in a time good enough to survive it to Q2, but he will start from P13 tomorrow, as both Toro Rosso cars will take a grid penalty for changing power units.

At the back, both McLaren and Williams couldn't get a single car into Q2, and neither could Marcus Ericsson for Sauber, despite his teammate Charles Leclerc being one of the quickest cars in midfield.

Q2

Both Mercedes and Red Bull (so just Daniel Ricciardo) went with the supersofts rather than the ultrasofts like Ferrari, so they could start the race on Sunday on the harder compound and have a longer first stint. That meant that Ferrari were the quickest team in the second session by quite a bit, but then again, they were on ultrasofts. Kimi Raikkonen beat Sebastian Vettel this time, as the Finn recorded a 1:32.884.

Among the drivers who got left behind in Q2 were Verstappen, who couldn't run because of that aforementioned broken suspension, and the two Toro Rosso's who are starting from the back of the grid anyway.

Kevin Magnussen and Carlos Sainz also couldn't make it out, as the Haas and Renault drivers couldn't do what their respective teammates did and squeeze out those extra few tenths of a second that would've helped them over the line. Both Force India cars and Charles Leclerc in his Sauber made it into Q3.

Q3

The first stint of the final session saw Lewis Hamilton take the lead, with Sebastian Vettel only just behind him (+0.088). Bottas was in third, and Raikkonen three tenths behind that in fourth. Charles Leclerc was the only one who didn't set a time during this stint, as the Monegasque rookie sat out the first stint for Sauber, waiting for the final few minutes to make his mark.

In the second and final stint, Hamilton improved on his already rapid time to secure his 81st career pole position. Raikkonen had it for a second there, but Hamilton crossed the line ten seconds later and improved on the Ice Man's lap by les then a tenth. Vettel then crossed the line with the second quickest time, but, of course, he'll start three places below that - P5.

Can anyone beat Hamilton in his current form? Will he close out the championship tomorrow? We'll find out tomorrow!