Good evening and welcome to LIVE coverage of qualifying at the US Grand Prix at the new Circuit of the Americas track in Austin, Texas. The drivers start their battle for pole at the penultimate round of the season in fifteen minutes from now, 6pm UK time, 12 midday local time.
Formula 1 | United States Grand Prix
Circuit of the Americas | 17.11.2012
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Completed
Qualifying
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Live
Live Updates
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Updated 17/11/2012 at 19:21 GMT
10'
More drivers moving onto the soft tyres now and Grosjean still leads, his best time having been improved to 1m37.865s.
11'
There are 23 drivers on the track now and congestion could become an issue soon as the battle for the top 17 heats up.
12'
Lotus man Romain Grosjean takes over at the top with a 1m39.078s effort.
14'
But De la Rosa is already having problems having locked up his left front on his first effort. He then improves to mark a 1m43.386s, not too bad.
15'
There are concerns that the struggling HRT could fail to make the 107% performance marker to qualify for the race. Based on Vettel's best time earlier the HRT pair would need to get under 1m42.8s approximately to qualify.
16'
Raikkonen takes over at the top setting a 1m41.058s lap.
18'
Maldonado, Senna, Glock, Pic, Raikkonen and Grosjean are out on track, Glock sets en early fast time.
19'
Vettel looks to be asleep in his garage for a moment but is just focusing with his eyes closed as he listens to some music to motivate himself before he goes out onto the track.
20'
QP is underway in the USA and we start with a track temperature of 32 degrees Celsius, much warmer than this morning's FP3 session.
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The Lone Star state hosts the 19th of 20 GPs in 2012 this weekend and there is huge Mexican support as well as a large American crowd at the new circuit for qualifying. So Sergio Perez is hoping to give the Mexican fans
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Vettel had some problems with the cooling system of his Red Bull Racing Renault machine in FP2 yesterday, but he was quickest in both Friday sessions by a healthy gap and earlier today he completed FP3 fastest - by a 0.258s margin from Lewis Hamilton.
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The favourite for pole is the current World Champion and standings leader Sebastian Vettel, who has been fastest in every session so far this weekend and could confirm his title defence tomorrow.