Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel snatched pole position from team-mate Mark Webber with the last lap of qualifying at the United States Grand Prix.
Lotus’s Romain Grosjean took third ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso sealed his best grid position for four races with sixth ahead of McLaren’s Sergio Perez.
McLaren’s Jenson Button was 13th and will drop to 14th after a penalty for ignoring red flags in Friday practice. Heikki Kovalainen was an impressive eighth for Lotus in his first of two races as a stand-in for Kimi Raikkonen, who ended his season two races early to have back surgery.
Williams’s Valtteri Bottas was an excellent ninth, a career-best performance in the dry in his rookie season, with Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez in 10th.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m36.338s 2. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m36.441s +0.103s 3. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m37.155s +0.817s 4. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1m37.296s +0.958s 5. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m37.345s +1.007s 6. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m37.376s +1.038s 7. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1m37.452s +1.114s 8. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m37.715s +1.377s 9. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m37.836s +1.498s 10. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m38.034s +1.696s Q2 cut-off time: 1m38.078s Gap 11. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m38.131s +1.066s 12. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m38.139s +1.074s 13. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m38.217s +1.152s 14. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.364s +1.299s 15. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m38.592s +1.527s 16. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m38.696s +1.631s Q1 cut-off time: 1m39.094s Gap 17. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m39.250s +1.429s 18. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m39.351s +1.530s 19. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m40.491s +2.670s 20. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1m40.528s +2.707s 21. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1m40.596s +2.775s 22. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m41.401s +3.580s