Hamilton starts United States GP from 5th place: "nothing to do with the car"

Lewis Hamilton's pole position drought continued and this time the Mercedes driver finds himself a fair way down the grid for his standards. The British F1 driver will start the United States Grand Prix from 5th place after he was forced to abort his final lap.

Hamilton, who needs just four points to win his sixth Formula 1 world championship, didn't blame the Mercedes car for his performance at COTA on Saturday.

"It's nothing to do with the car I just didn't put the laps together today and the car had the capability to be on the front row and it was my fault. Honestly, I'm not trying to think about [winning sixth world championship] right now, I'm just trying to digest what happened and think about tomorrow," Hamilton told the media after the qualifying session.

Valtteri Bottas, who is the only other driver in with a shot of winning the 2019 F1 championship, starts from pole position.