Lewis Hamilton has admitted that Max Verstappen and Red Bull were simply too strong during qualifying for the United States Grand Prix, as he settled for second on the grid. Hamilton and Verstappen traded fastest times at the end of Saturday's pole position shootout at the Circuit of the Americas, with Verstappen coming out on top by two-tenths of a second. Hamilton said he got "pretty much everything" from his final lap, describing Red Bull as "incredibly quick", with Sergio Perez backing up teammate Verstappen in third place. "I gave it everything today," Hamilton reflected after qualifying. "It was a bit of a struggle through qualifying. I think from [FP1] onwards we kind of fell back a little bit. And those guys [Red Bull] were incredibly quick through qualifying. "I was happy with my last lap. Of course, there's always areas that we can improve, but I think that was pretty much everything we had. "We'll just work as hard as we can tomorrow. It's good positioning for tomorrow, so hopefully it'll be a good race down to Turn 1." Asked about his mindset for Sunday, he said: "To win the race and to give these guys [the fans] the best race they've seen!" Hamilton trails Verstappen by six points in the standings heading into Sunday's Grand Prix.
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