F1: Lewis Hamilton qualifies No. 1 for U.S. Grand Prix, on verge of winning 5th title - MotorSportsTalk

Lewis Hamilton took a big step toward earning his fifth Formula One championship on Saturday, qualifying No. 1 for Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Hamilton and his Mercedes have won five of the previous six U.S. Grand Prix’s held at COTA, including the last four races there.

The Great Britain native comes into Sunday’s race leading the F1 point standings and is seeking to tie Juan Manuel Fangio for second-most F1 career championships. Michael Schumacher has the most with seven crowns.

Sebastian Vettel is Hamilton’s sole remaining challenger for the title, trailing Hamilton by 67 points with four races to go, including Sunday’s race.

Vettel must win Sunday’s race or finish within seven points of Hamilton to prevent the latter from winning the title and pushing a possible clinching scenario to next week in Mexico.

Vettel qualified second Saturday, but due to a red-flag three-position grid penalty sustained during Friday’s morning practice, will start fifth on Sunday’s grid.

As a result of Vettel’s penalty, Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen will start alongside Hamilton on the front row for Sunday’s race.

Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, Vallteri Bottas, will start third, while Daniel Ricciardo will start fourth.

Rounding out the top 10 were Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg, Romain Grosjean, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez.

Here’s how qualifying played out:

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	Q1	Q2	Q3	LAPS
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:34.130	1:33.480	1:32.237	20
2	5	Sebastian Vettel	FERRARI	1:34.569	1:33.079	1:32.298	18
3	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FERRARI	1:34.703	1:32.884	1:32.307	15
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	1:34.518	1:33.702	1:32.616	17
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER	1:34.755	1:34.185	1:33.494	14
6	31	Esteban Ocon	FORCE INDIA MERCEDES	1:34.876	1:34.522	1:34.145	18
7	27	Nico Hulkenberg	RENAULT	1:34.932	1:34.564	1:34.215	18
8	8	RomainGrosjean	HAAS FERRARI	1:34.892	1:34.419	1:34.250	17
9	16	Charles Leclerc	SAUBER FERRARI	1:35.069	1:34.255	1:34.420	17
10	11	Sergio Perez	FORCE INDIA MERCEDES	1:35.193	1:34.525	1:34.594	17
11	55	Carlos Sainz	RENAULT	1:34.891	1:34.566		12
12	20	KevinMagnussen	HAAS FERRARI	1:34.972	1:34.732		12
13	10	Pierre Gasly	SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA	1:34.850	DNS		13
14	28	Brendon Hartley	SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA	1:35.206	DNS		13
15	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER	1:34.766			4
16	14	FernandoAlonso	MCLAREN RENAULT	1:35.294			6
17	35	Sergey Sirotkin	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:35.362			6
18	18	Lance Stroll	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:35.480			8
19	9	Marcus Ericsson	SAUBER FERRARI	1:35.536			8
20	2	StoffelVandoorne	MCLAREN RENAULT	1:35.735			6

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SINGAPORE — Max Verstappen’s Formula One title celebrations were put on hold after the Red Bull driver placed seventh at a chaotic Singapore Grand Prix, won by his teammate Sergio Perez on Sunday.

Perez’s second win of the season saw him finish 7.6 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. in third place.

Perez was investigated for a potential safety car infringement but still kept the win after a 5-second time penalty for dropping too far back after being warned.

Verstappen had won the past five races but needed to win here and finish 22 points ahead of Leclerc to be crowned champion for a second straight season. That could happen next weekend at the Japanese GP.

Verstappen made a mistake after the second safety car restart, following AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda’s crash on Lap 36. When Verstappen tried to overtake Lando Norris’ McLaren, he locked his tires and needed to pit again.

Leclerc started from pole position with Verstappen going from eighth after a team blunder in qualifying.

The race start was delayed by more than an hour to clear water off the Marina Bay Circuit track following heavy rainfall. Drivers had to finish the 61-lap race within a two-hour window; 59 laps were completed.

RACE CLASSIFICATION (END OF RACE)

Perez wins an incredible race on our return to Marina Bay #SingaporeGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/P14dpRmDQo

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 2, 2022

Tricky conditions saw the virtual safety car deployed three times and DRS was allowed with about 30 minutes remaining.

Perez made a good start and jumped past Leclerc while Verstappen dropped several places. The first safety car was on Lap 8 when Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo was cut off by Nicholas Latifi’s Williams.

Perez got away cleanly at the restart, while Verstappen climbed into seventh behind Fernando Alonso – whose 350th F1 race ended disappointingly when his engine failed on Lap 21, bringing out the first VSC.

With the track still damp, drivers decided against changing to quicker tires – apart from Mercedes’ George Russell, who struggled for grip.

Hamilton made a rare mistake on Lap 33 and thudded into the crash barrier. Soon after, the leading drivers changed tires in a flurry of stops. They did so just before the safety car was deployed again following Tsunoda’s error.

Verstappen overtook Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin right at the end for seventh place.