Hamilton starts alongside Verstappen: "It'll be a good race into turn one"

Lewis Hamilton improved in the final run of Q3, but it wasn't enough to beat Max Verstappen. The Dutchman will start from pole position in the 2021 United States Grand Prix. The title rivals will be heading down into turn one together for the seventh time this year.

During the season, Hamilton and Verstappen have made contact in Silverstone and Monza amongst other places. The two are heading down to turn one together on Sunday and both drivers want a good race to turn one.

"Firstly, I want to acknowledge the great crowd. I gave it everything, a bit of a struggle through qualifying. I think from FP1 onwards, we fell back a little bit. Those guys were incredibly quick. There are always areas we can improve, but that was everything we had. It's good positioning for tomorrow so hopefully, it'll be a good race into turn one. The mindset is to win the race," Hamilton said in the interviews after the session.

Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas will take a five-place grid penalty because Mercedes installed a new internal combustion engine. This leaves Hamilton to fight Verstappen and Sergio Perez, who starts from P3, alone.