Hamilton claims pole number 72 in Austin

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton claimed his 72nd career pole position on Saturday afternoon (local time) as he set a new track record at the Circuit of The Americas ahead of the 17th round of the F1 season, the USGP.

This is Lewis' second pole position at this track, the team's 4th in a row and the 11th of the 2017 season. It also marks Lewis' 117th front-row start which is a new all-time record in Formula One. Prior to this he was equal with Michael Schumacher on 116.

Starting alongside the British driver is his title rival, Sebastian Vettel, who secured the second fastest time of the session with the second mercedes of Valtteri Bottas set to line up in third.

“I am delighted for Lewis to have secured pole position - and the team's fourth in a row at this circuit,” said Mercedes man James Allison. “Any day when you start a Grand Prix from P1 and P3 is a good one. But after the metronomic progression through each round of qualifying, we were left with the feeling that there was perhaps a tenth or two more in the car on that final run, and that the front row was within our grasp. However, it would be churlish to be anything other than delighted with the result. Looking forward to the race, the combination of good grid positions and our high fuel running on Friday shows that we have a good opportunity for both cars to have a strong race.”

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo will join Bottas on the second row, with Kimi Raikkonen in fifth. However Max Verstappen, who qualified in sixth, will start from the back after being handed a fist full of penalties due to changes to his Renault engine.

Speaking of Renault, Carlow Sainz qualified 8^th for his first session with the Renault factory team just behind the Force India of Esteban Ocon.

Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten.