After crowning Max Verstappen 2022 World Champion in Singapore two weeks ago, Formula 1 has returned to Austin, Texas for the 10th running of the Circuit of the Americas this weekend, Oct 21-23.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was quickest on pole day notching the second pole of his career.

Ferrari also secured the second position on Sunday's starting grid with Charles Leclerc grabbing the second position.

"The whole team did a great job in what was one of the trickest qualifying sessions of the season," said Ferrari's Laurent Mekies. "Yesterday we did less preparation work than usual, as we only really had one session to do that, because of the 2023 tyre test. "

"On top of that, as the session got underway, strong winds made life difficult and in this situation Carlos and Charles did a very good job, dialled in to their cars to the extent that in Q2, with both of them being able to go through to Q3 on a scrubbed set of tyres," said Sainz.

The two Silver Arrows of Mercedes qualified third and fourth with an impressive effort on Saturday.

"That was a decent session for us," said Mercedes Toto Wollf. "I think we saw that the last update of the season is working well and there was a lap in the car that could have been up to three tenths of a second faster - but this car is still so tricky to drive, and that's how it goes sometimes."

Aston Martin's Lance Strol rounded out the top five in qualifying.

"I am really pleased for the team because we have made good progress with the car recently and we are looking stronger on Saturdays. I really enjoyed it out there, even though conditions were tricky with the wind," said Stroll.

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QAULIFYING  RESULTS
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Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Sainz		Ferrari		1:34.356	130.702 mph
2	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:34.421	0.065
3	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:34.448	0.092
4	Perez		Red Bull	1:34.645	0.289
5	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:34.947	0.591
6	Russell		Mercedes	1:34.988	0.632
7	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:35.598	1.242
8	Norris		McLaren		1:35.690	1.334
9	Alonso		Alpine		1:35.876	1.520
10	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:36.319	1.963
11	Albon		Williams	1:36.368	
12	Vettel		Aston Martin	1:36.398	
13	Gasly		AlphaTauri	1:36.740	
14	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:36.970	
15	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:37.147	
16	Magnussen	Haas		1:36.949	
17	Ricciardo	McLaren		1:37.046	
18	Ocon		Alpine		1:37.068	
19	Schumacher	Haas		1:37.111	
20	Latifi		Williams	1:37.244	

(image provided by Aston Martin F1 Media)