Sebastian Vettel emerged the winner of a private battle for pole position with team-mate Mark Webber, as the Red Bull pair out-qualified their rivals by a considerable margin at the Circuit of the Americas. Romain Grosjean took third place for Lotus, seven tenths of a second behind Webber.

Red Bull Racing maintained its grip on the timesheets at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas, with Sebastian Vettel quickest in final practice ahead of team-mate Mark Webber.

The Red Bull pairing were the only drivers to dip below the 1m37s mark as the field conducted performance runs on the medium tyre at the end of the session. Vettel’s 1:36.733 was good enough for P1, with Webber finishing two tenths of second further back. Lewis Hamilton took P3 for Mercedes, just over three tenths adrift of champion elect Vettel.

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