United States Grand Prix: Qualifying Facts and Stats

After Valtteri Bottas took his fourth pole position of the year to draw level on P1 starts with team mate Lewis Hamilton, we look at the best facts and figures from qualifying at the Circuit of The Americas.

• Bottas took pole by the smallest margin in Circuit of The Americas history – just 0.012s.

• In doing so, Bottas secured Mercedes’ 200th front-row start in Formula 1.

• By contrast, team mate Lewis Hamilton’s P5 marks only the second time in the world champion’s career that he's been off the front row in the USA – he was also fifth on the grid in 2013.

READ MORE: 'Feels good to be on pole again' says Wolff, after Bottas gives Mercedes P1 in Texas

• By topping Q1 for McLaren, Lando Norris – in his last race weekend as a teenager – became the first driver from outside the big three teams to have led any session or segment in 2019.

• Team mate Carlos Sainz now leads Norris 10-9 in the McLaren qualifying head-to-head, after securing P7 to the Briton’s P8. Sainz has never finished lower than seventh at COTA.

• At Renault, Daniel Ricciardo made it into Q3 for the first time since Sochi, but team mate Nico Hulkenberg suffered his third successive Q2 elimination.

• Ricciardo’s ninth place on the grid marks his worst start at COTA since 2013, when he qualified 10th for Toro Rosso.

• Talking of Toro Rosso, Pierre Gasly with 10th on the grid gives the Italian team their first top-10 start in Austin since 2016.

• After qualifying P3, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will start in the top-three for the first time since his pole position in Hungary, seven races ago.

• Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fourth is off the front row for the first time since that same race in Hungary.

• Over at Alfa Romeo, Antonio Giovinazzi outqualified Kimi Raikkonen for the eighth time this season, as they ended up P16 and P17. However, it was the first time that both Alfas have been out in Q1 this year, while you have to go all the way back to Monza 2018 for the Sauber/Alfa Romeo entity’s last double-Q1 elimination.