Championship leader Sebastian Vettel this evening won pole position for tomorrow's grand prix in Texas after a close battle with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who starts from P2.

Vettel's Red Bull team mate Mark Webber starts third.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, the only man who can challenge Vettel for a third driver's crown, starts eighth while his team mate Felipe Massa is sixth.

Hamilton's team mate Jenson Button starts 12th, with McLaren having suffered yet another technical problem.

Vettel will win the championship if he comes first tomorrow and Alonso is not higher than fifth.

THE GRID

1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull - Renault

2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren

3. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault

4. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Lotus - Renault

5. Michael Schumacher (Germany) Mercedes

6. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari

7. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India - Mercedes

8. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari

9. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus - Renault

10. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Williams - Renault

11. Bruno Senna (Brazil) Williams - Renault

12. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren

13. Paul Di Resta (Britain) Force India - Mercedes

14. Jean-Eric Vergne (France) Toro Rosso - Ferrari

15. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Sauber - Ferrari

16. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Sauber - Ferrari

17. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes

18. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Toro Rosso - Ferrari

19. Timo Glock (Germany) Marussia - Cosworth

20. Charles Pic (France) Marussia - Cosworth

21. Vitaly Petrov (Russia) Caterham - Renault

22. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Caterham - Renault

23. Pedro de la Rosa (Spain) HRT - Cosworth

24. Narain Karthikeyan (India) HRT - Cosworth

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.