Valtteri Bottas proved he isn’t going down without a fight after storming to pole for the United States Grand Prix.
The Finn simply has to win at Circuit of the Americas to keep his slim hopes of becoming champion alive and hope teammate Lewis Hamilton finishes lower than eighth.
But that scenario may not be quite so farfetched as the Mercedes driver endured a rare off-day, slumping to fifth place on the grid.
Q1
A late flier sees Lando Norris set the pace at the front, ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen.
Ferrari ease into qualifying with Leclerc back out on track after an engine issue in final practice and only managing 12th fastest as others improved.
The battle to avoid elimination sees both Alfa Romeo’s in trouble as Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen both improve on their last attempts but unable to avoid the drop zone.
George Russell produced another solid performance albeit still a second down on the rest in 18th, but still 0.5s clear of teammate Robert Kubica.
Sergio Perez ended the session 19th but was already destined for a pit-lane start after missing the weighbridge during practice on Friday.
Q2
Albon sets the pace as the only top-six driver to use the soft compound tyre, as Verstappen, Mercedes and Ferrari all opt for the medium.
Hamilton again has just under a tenth advantage over the Dutchman on the same compound in second and third.
At the cut-off point to make the top 10, there was mixed news for Renault as Daniel Ricciardo made it in ninth, but Nico Hulkenberg just missed out in 11th.
Haas’ home race went largely as expected with neither driver quite having enough to challenge. Instead, Kevin Magnussen starts 12th with Romain Grosjean 15th.
Daniil Kvyat had initially taken 12th but was judged to have exceeded track limits at Turn 19, meaning that time was deleted and the Russian slipped back to 13th.
Kvyat also triggered an incident with Hamilton and Verstappen at the penultimate corner, with both drivers having to take avoiding action but ultimately no harm was done.
Finally, Lance Stroll was the sole competitive Racing Point due to Perez’s aforementioned penalty with the Canadian only managing 14th.
Q3
With very little splitting the top three teams, it came down to the drivers to make all the difference as the fight for pole got underway.
Bottas sets the early pace with a new track record of 1m32.029s, just 0.012s clear of Vettel with Verstappen third.
A poor lap for Hamilton sees him struggling down in fifth as Leclerc manages to pip the Mercedes into fourth.
Despite a big build-up, that order would remain unchanged until the end as only Verstappen improves on his second attempt but not enough to move up from third.
As a result, Bottas scored his fifth pole of the season and first since Silverstone to put the pressure on his teammate, though fifth is still very much within what Lewis requires to secure his sixth world title.
Vettel will start alongside on the front row with Leclerc fourth as Ferrari’s run of six consecutive P1 starts finally comes to an end.
Albon rounded out the top six in the second Red Bull.
McLaren were unmatched again in the midfield as Carlos Sainz was only eight-tenths off pole in seventh, with Lando Norris behind in eighth.
Daniel Ricciardo only had one shot in Q3 and made it count to beat Pierre Gasly as Renault’s battle with Toro Rosso for P5 in the Constructors’ standings gets tasty.
Full results from qualifying at COTA can be seen below:
