Max Verstappen was worried that the rain that poured at the end of Q3 in Austin might ruin his pole-winning run.
In the latter stages of qualifying, there was little to choose between Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Sergio Perez.
The Mexican was on pole after the first runs, just ahead of the Dutchman, but the Mercedes driver drove faster than both on his final flying lap.
The Red Bull duo had one more shot to move ahead of their competitor, and their lives were made even more difficult when rain began to fall while they were still out.
It didn’t cost Verstappen anything in the end, as he took pole and Perez placed third, but the 24-year-old feared the worst before crossing the finish line.
“In Q3, my first lap wasn’t amazing,” he told reporters afterwards.
“But then in the final lap it also started spitting. [There was] a bit of drizzle in the last sector especially, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to hang on to my time.
“But it was enough and, of course, to put the lap time in and be on pole position, and also to be P1 and P3 as a team, I think it was a very strong performance.”
At the start of the weekend, capturing pole seemed like a much further dream for Verstappen and his team, with Mercedes appearing far superior in the first practice session.
Since then, though, Red Bull has won every session, which he attributes to a better understanding of the tyres.
“I wasn’t very happy yesterday and of course I wasn’t entirely happy with today but we definitely went into the right direction, so that helped,” he said.
“After FP1 I was a bit like ‘oh, okay, it’s quite a big gap’, but then slowly we just improved a bit and today we seemed to jump ahead. Of course that’s a great effort from the whole team.
“After Turkey I think we weren’t entirely happy with the performance there but of course that’s quite a different track with the tarmac and also feeling as well.
“At the end of the day are the only thing that are touching the ground are the tyres and they have a lot of different behaviours all year. So if you can find a bit there it can maybe make a bit of difference, also at this track.”
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