AUSTIN -- Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel locked out the front row of the grid in Austin -- a result which would have been more tantilising for Sunday's race without Ferrari's recent spate of crushing misfortune which has swung the championship out of its grasp. Here's a look at what else went down in qualifying.
Shock: Haas never looked like making Q3 this weekend but qualifying 20th was not something the team was expecting. The team has struggled with both cars at points this weekend and Kevin Magnussen was way off the pace in the opening session, finishing bottom of the order on a weekend when one corner of the COTA circuit has been christened #HaasHill.
Shocker: Lance Stroll's block on Romain Grosjean was a clumsy bit of driving. On a slow-down lap, the Williams driver noticed Grosjean approaching and attempted to move off the circuit -- going across the racing line in the process. That forced Grosjean into evasive action and the Haas driver, wearing a badge saying "I'm not moaning!" on his U.S. Grand Prix helmet, was understandably furious.
Worth the wait?: Qualifying started two hours later than usual in Austin in order to finish closer to a Justin Timberlake concert happening at COTA this evening, in the hope more fans would arrive early and see some racing. But the four-hour wait between FP3 and the start of Q1 was needless and the session which followed lacked some of the drama of previous qualifying sessions this year.
No smoke without fire: Kevin Magnussen has a habit of infuriating his rivals. The Haas driver clearly blocked Sergio Perez during Q1 and the Mexican reacted angrily on the radio, saying Magnussen is "always the same" when not on a flying lap in these sessions. We don't hear every radio message from drivers, meaning TV coverage can unfairly make Magnussen seem like the only offender in this regard, but clearly there's substance to the complaint given that we've heard plenty of them about the No.20 car this year.
King Carlos: If you were still wondering why Renault wanted Carlos Sainz as early as possible, qualifying provided an answer. With Nico Hulkenberg skipping Q2 due to penalties coming ahead of the race, Renault still progressed to Q3 with the Spaniard. It's fair to say the team's qualifying session might not have lasted that long if Jolyon Palmer was still at the team.
Star of qualifying: Fernando Alonso has done a lot of great driving in a sub-standard car this year and he did so again in qualifying -- opening his radio channel to make sure sure the whole world knew how highly he rated his lap for good measure. The two-time world champion said there was no way he could have executed a better lap than the one which saw him advance to Q3 and, though it's hard to judge just how good it was, it's another reminder of why McLaren's switch to Renault power cannot come soon enough.
Title fight: Ferrari's recent misfortune has taken the sting out of the title fight, but it's still good to see the two main contenders line up on the front row. As Lewis Hamilton has much more to lose than Sebastian Vettel, the start could be the best opportunity for the Ferrari driver to wrest the lead from a Mercedes car which has looked phenomenally quick all weekend.
If anything, Hamilton and Vettel's front row lock-out should provide further frustration at how dramatically the championship fight has swung away from the latter in recent races -- without Ferrari's failures in Malaysia and Japan, the fight ahead of us on Sunday afternoon would have been a far more exciting prospect.