Lewis Hamilton buzzing with "very important" pole position in USA

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has expressed his happiness with his 81st career pole position as he secured first place at the Circuit of the Americas, as he thinks it's very important to have that position with the potential title-win tomorrow.

It was very, very close as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were both within a tenth behind Hamilton. Vettel, of course, will take a three-place grid penalty for ignoring a red flag on Friday, which means that he'll start from fifth place instead of second.

As Hamilton needs to keep Vettel at least two places behind him to clinch his fifth drivers' championship, the Brit realised that beating the Ferrari driver was still important, with or without grid penalty.

"That was very important. That was close..." Hamilton admitted to Martin Brundle after climbing out of his Mercedes.

With the Brit having won the last four editions at the Circuit of the Americas, he'll be the nailed-on favourite to not only win the race tomorrow, but also to win the title, as Valtteri Bottas will likely act as a human shield once again. Let's see how it unfolds on Sunday!