Raikkonen value to outqualify rattled Vettel in Texas
Hamilton poised to seal fifth title
US Grand Prix qualifying
Channel 4 & Sky Sports F1, 10pm Saturday
Lewis Hamilton is long odds-on to secure pole position for tomorrow's US Grand Prix - a pole position that would go a long way towards sealing the Briton's fifth world drivers championship.
Hamilton will claim the title in Texas if he outscores Sebastian Vettel by eight points. He'll do that if he wins with Vettel third or lower.
Ferrari star Vettel led the championship in the middle of the season but his challenge has unravelled once again and the German has suffered another setback this weekend.
Vettel failed to slow sufficiently when the red flags came out in first practice to halt the session after Charles Leclerc had dragged gravel all over the circuit. The stewards decided that was worth a three-place grid drop and will be a huge blow to Vettel's chances of finishing the race in the top two.
Friday's running was heavily affected by rain, but the latest forecasts suggest qualifying could be dry.
Hamilton topped both Friday sessions by over a second despite completing just nine laps all day. The Mercedes ace is going for his fifth consecutive victory at the Circuit of the Americas and it looks like he is going to take some stopping.
For a bet, Kimi Raikkonen looks overpriced to outqualify Vettel. The match will of course be settled before Vettel's grid drop is applied, but the Iceman has qualified higher than Vettel at three of the last six grands prix, including in Japan last time.
There, Vettel made a costly mistake in qualifying - just one of a number of errors he has committed in recent races as the pressure of the championship battle appears to be getting to him.
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