Formula One championship leader Kimi Antonelli claimed pole position on Saturday for the United States Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver clocked the fastest time of 1 minute 34.035 seconds in his first flying lap of the final block of qualifying and nobody was able to beat that time in the second run.
Max Verstappen was 0.179 seconds behind in second, followed by Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar, who was 0.215 seconds off the pace.
This was Antonelli's seventh pole of the season, but first since the Belgium GP in July.
"We got pole, so we will try and win tomorrow. But Max has been very quick and Isack did an incredible job in qualifying so it will not be easy. But we will try and get a good start, lead into Turn 1 and set the pace," the Italian said.
Verstappen surely was expecting more from his qualifying session.
"Just not very happy with Q3 to be honest, not what I wanted, not what I expected but second - I'll take it," he said.
His team-mate Hadjar, however, was happy with third place: "I'm happy because it has been incredibly hard for me since the start of the weekend, struggled with car balance, this morning I couldn't even set a lap time on the soft due to the car balance."
Ferrari disappointed after claiming top spot in all practice sessions and were fourth and fifth with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton respectively. But Leclerc remained optimistic.
"The last time I started from fourth here I won," he said referring to his victory in 2024.
George Russell in the other Mercedes was sixth, followed by the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and defending champion Lando Norris. Racing Bulls drivers Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson completed the top 10.
Antonelli could claim the drivers' title this weekend and become F1's youngest ever champion at 20 years old. However, his chances of doing so on Sunday are unlikely, especially after the resurgent Verstappen won the last two races in Malaysia and Singapore.
He would need to win the race and for Russell to be not better than ninth and Hamilton not better than fifth.
But it's a matter of time until Antonelli can celebrate his maiden F1 crown as he holds a 102-point lead over Russell with six races to go.
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, now retired, is currently the youngest F1 champion. He won his first title at 23 years, 134 days in 2010.