Lewis Hamilton celebrated his 58th career pole position and his first at the Circuit of the Americas after posting the quickest lap ever seen around the circuit on Saturday.
The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team racer denied team-mate and championship rival Nico Rosberg by 0.216 seconds, and was pleased to get the lap together, particularly at the first turn that has been causing his grief all weekend long.
“We’ve been working so hard and this is a really good reward for everyone at the team,” said Hamilton. “I’m really pleased it all came together today so I could claim my first pole in the US.
“I’ve always been quite bad around the first corner, finding it hard to get the right line and losing time at this part of the track but today I finally got it right – and it was the right time to do so!”
Hamilton is hopeful that he has solved the issues with his starts that have cost him dearly a few times this season, including last time out in Japan when he dropped from second to eighth.
“I feel strong this weekend and I’m just going to approach Sunday like any other race,” said Hamilton. “We’ve done a lot of work to solidify our starts as well as our long run pace and I’m looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow.”
