Texas Grand Prix | Verstappen on pole and Hamilton alongside in Texas

The winner in Austin has always come from the front row, with Hamilton winning from second on the grid in the first race there in 2012 and then 2014 and 2015

Red Bull's Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen secured pole position for the U.S. Grand Prix in the dying seconds on Saturday, October 23 as Mercedes title rival Lewis Hamilton had to settle for second.

Verstappen leads seven times world champion Hamilton by six points with six races remaining and the pole at Austin's Circuit of the Americas was the ninth of the season for the Dutch 24-year-old — and eighth in the last 11 races.

"Ah yes, this feels really, really good," he exclaimed over the team radio after beating Hamilton by 0.209 of a second with a final flying lap of one minute 32.910 just as it started to drizzle on an otherwise hot and humid Texas afternoon.