| P | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:38.303 | 01:36.290 | 01:36.067 | 20 | |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 01:37.196 | 01:37.287 | 01:36.443 | 16 | |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 01:38.249 | 01:37.499 | 01:36.906 | 19 | |
| 4 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 01:37.877 | 01:37.347 | 01:37.205 | 20 | |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing | 01:38.814 | 01:37.873 | 01:37.244 | 17 | |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Scuderia Ferrari | 01:38.349 | 01:38.010 | 01:37.610 | 16 | |
| 7 | Jenson Button* | McLaren | 01:38.574 | 01:38.024 | 01:37.655 | 17 | |
| 8 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | 01:38.557 | 01:38.047 | 01:37.706 | 16 | |
| 9 | Kimi Räikkönen | Scuderia Ferrari | 01:38.669 | 01:38.263 | 01:37.804 | 22 | |
| 10 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | 01:38.855 | 01:38.378 | 01:38.810 | 15 | |
| 11 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 01:38.608 | 01:38.467 | 16 | ||
| 12 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 01:39.200 | 01:38.554 | 16 | ||
| 13 | Nico Hülkenberg | Force India | 01:38.931 | 01:38.598 | 16 | ||
| 14 | Daniil Kvyat^ | Toro Rosso | 01:38.936 | 01:38.699 | 17 | ||
| 15 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 01:39.250 | 10 | |||
| 16 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | 01:39.555 | 10 | |||
| 17 | Sebastian Vettel° | Red Bull Racing | 01:39.621 | 3 | |||
| 18 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 01:39.679 | 8 |
*Five-place grid penalty, unscheduled gearbox change
^Ten-place grid penalty, using his seventh power unit of the season in Austin
°To start from pitlane, using his sixth complete power unit of the season in Austin
Note: Qualifying format had been revised due to the absence of the Caterham and Marussia F1 teams in Austin, instead of the usual six slowest cars being knocked out in both Q1 and Q2, four cars exited in each of the first two sessions whilst the final Q3 top-ten shootout remained unchanged