Sebastian Vettel will start tomorrow's United States Grand Prix from the front after edging Lewis Hamilton by a tenth of a second in Texas.

Vettel posted the fastest time in the first session, impressively shaving half a second out of Lewis Hamilton's time on the slower compound of tyre rubber.

Fernando Alonso had to work to make it through to the final session as Jenson Button missed out on Q3 by losing power. The Englishman will start tomorrow's race in 12th position.

In the final session Hamilton was pushing Vettel toe-to-toe but it was the reigning two-time world champion who claimed pole position.

His main rival for this year's title, Fernando Alonso, struggled in Austin and will start from eighth tomorrow evening.

Grid for tomorrow's race:

1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1:37.665
2. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
3. Mark Webber (Red Bull)
4. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
5. Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)
6. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
7. Nico Hulkenburg (Force India)
8. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
9. Romain Grosjean (Lotus)
10. Pastor Maldonado (Williams)
11. Bruno Senna (Williams)
12. Jenson Button (McLaren)
13. Paul di Resta (Force India)
14. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)
15. Sergio Perez (Sauber)
16. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber)
17. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
18. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)
19. Timo Glock (Marussia)
20. Charles Pic (Marussia)
21. Vitaly Petrov (Caterham)
22. Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)
23. Pedro de la Rosa (HRT)
24. Narain Karthikeyan (HRT)