Hamilton: “Surprised to be so close to Vettel”

Lewis Hamilton admitted he didn't expect to be so close to Sebastian Vettel in qualifying for the US GP. The McLaren driver was the only one to challenge the German who dominated the weekend since free practice, securing pole today.
However, Hamilton fought until the end, approaching 109 thousandths of a second.

“I'm very, very happy with my lap,” said Hamilton. “I saw in Q2 that they were incredibly fast. One second or nine tenths. I didn't know where I could close that gap... In Q3 I pushed hard and gave everything. I found time in the last sector. I did two consecutive laps and surprisingly the second one was faster. On that lap I went to the limit everywhere. I think I lost a tenth in the last corner, I gained in some places and lost elsewhere, but I'm still really, really happy to be here."

Hamilton will start from the dirty side of the track: “I'm not really worried about the first corner, I'm more worried about the dirty side of the grid. I tried a start from third position and it was quite slippery. Turn 1 is so big, I don't think anything could go wrong."