Carlos Sainz takes pole position for United States Grand Prix ahead of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen

Carlos Sainz led team-mate Charles Leclerc in qualifying for the United States Grand Prix as Ferrari had the car to beat over one lap at the Circuit of the Americas.

It’s the third pole position of Sainz’s career, although it’s only the second time he’s accomplished it by going fastest in qualifying.

Leclerc was quickest after the first run in Q3 but Sainz came back with a great lap to pip his team-mate by 0.065 seconds.

“It was fun, a lot of fun,” said Sainz.

“Very tricky out there with these winds that we have today. So gusty that every corner is a bit of an adventure with these cars. You don’t know how much grip you’re going to get or how much grip to expect.

“But I managed to put together a good lap without mistakes and a pole position that was a long time coming after a few qualifyings in the dry getting very close to it but not quite getting there.”

Verstappen struggled with his tyres so he decided to do an extra warm-up lap for his last run in Q3, but was still 0.092 seconds adrift of Sainz’s pole position time.

Sergio Perez was fourth, but has a five-grid place penalty so Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will be promoted to the second row.

As has been the case for most of the season, the Mercedes pair were clearly ahead of the midfield but still a significant margin away from Red Bull and Ferrari.

Lance Stroll continued his strong practice pace into qualifying and will start from fifth, ahead of Lando Norris who was originally eliminated in Q2, until Zhou Guanyu had his lap time deleted for track limits.

Zhou and Fernando Alonso, who qualified ninth, are the two other drivers who have been hit with five-grid place penalties for new power unit elements.

A frantic end to Q2 saw Alex Albon and Sebastian Vettel miss out on the top 10 by less than one tenth of a second, with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda in 13th and 15th.

Esteban Ocon was the surprise Q1 elimination in 18th with Daniel Ricciardo being knocked out in the first part of qualifying for the third time in five events.

Mick Schumacher had a spin at Turn 1 on his final run which meant he qualified down in 19th.

United States Grand Prix 2022 Starting Grid