Formula 1 Racing comes to the United State and is being held at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. It should be an entertaining race to say the least. Unlike most American racing, NASCAR and IRL, the F1 course isn’t an oval, it has numerous turns in both directions.
Sebastian Vettel landed the pole position for the race. Vettel finished ahead of his teammate Mark Webber. It is his second straight start on the pole.
“It was very close with Mark, he seemed to get closer and closer as the weekend went on, so fortunately I was just able to stay ahead,” Vettel said, according to Formula1.com. “I’m very happy with pole position today, I like this place and the circuit and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. It’s important to start on the clean side, so we’ll see what we can do.”
Webber was disappointed that he didn’t earn the pole position. To make matters worse, Webber feels like a mistake he made cost him the spot.
“The first part of my final lap was very good, I was happy with that, but I didn’t quite get Turns 19 and 20,” he explained. “If I’d done what I did there initially in Q3, it would probably have been enough, but I tried to squeeze a bit more out and it’s easy to load the car a bit too much in these conditions. Sometimes you’re happy and think you’ve given your best, but today it slipped through the fingers.”
Date: Sunday, November 17
Start Time: 2 p.m. ET
Location: Austin, TX
Track: Circuit of the Americas
TV Info: NBC
Live Stream: NBC Sports Live Extra
Starting grid:
Row 1
1. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault
2. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault
Row 2
3. Romain Grosjean France Lotus-Renault
4. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Sauber-Ferrari
Row 3
5. Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes-Mercedes
6. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari-Ferrari
Row 4
7. Sergio Perez Mexico McLaren-Mercedes
8. Heikki Kovalainen Finland Lotus-Renault
Row 5
9. Valtteri Bottas Finland Williams-Renault
10. Daniel Ricciardo Australia Toro Rosso-Ferrari
Row 6
11. Paul di Resta Britain Force India-Mercedes
12. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes
Row 7
13. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari
14. Jean-Eric Vergne France Toro Rosso-Ferrari
Row 8
15. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes *
16. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes
Row 9
17. Pastor Maldonado Venezuela Williams-Renault
18. Giedo van der Garde Holland Caterham-Renault
Row 10
19. Jules Bianchi France Marussia-Cosworth
20. Esteban Gutierrez Mexico Sauber-Ferrari ***
Row 11
21. Max Chilton Britain Marussia-Cosworth +
22. Charles Pic France Caterham-Renault **
* Three-place grid penalty for overtaking under red flags in practice
** Five-place grid penalty for gearbox change
*** Ten-place grid penalty for blocking a rival in Q1
+ Drive-thru penalty to serve in first five laps for blocking rivals in Q1
Course Map:
