Lando Norris dominated a sodden Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying session after title rival Oscar Piastri languished in fifth place.
The circuit was flooded with rain leading up to qualifying, but the rain stopped midway through Q1. It wasn’t until Q3 that intermediate tires became the obvious choice, with the track slowly drying out in miserable conditions of 54 degrees. However, the track temperature was still no higher than the outside temperature and conditions continued to be very slippery, with even the intermediate tires requiring several fast laps to warm up.
Norris gradually increased his pace, starting the session in eighth place on the first lap, and moved up to fifth on his second attempt. However, on the third flying lap, he took the lead by about 0.6 seconds, and was on track to improve his time by more than a second until he oversteered at the final chicane and returned to the ground.
Although he lost 0.4 seconds, his best lap of 1 minute 47.934 seconds was enough to take pole position.
“It was stressful, stressful to death,” he said. “It’s slippery outside, and like me, as soon as you hit the curb, it snaps one way and then the other.
“I almost hit the wall, but today was good enough for P1… It was a tricky day, so days like this are more rewarding.”
Verstappen will line up with Norris on the front row, but is 0.323 seconds behind.
“It was really, really slippery outside,” he said. “In the dry it’s already slippery, but in the wet it’s not fun, I can tell you that.
“I like driving in the wet, but this was more like driving on ice. We had a really hard time getting grip. We have to take some more risks, but it still wasn’t enough to fight for the lead. Still, it’s good for us to be on the front row. The laps felt okay. I hope the inside (line of the grid) is okay in terms of grip, but we’ll see.”
Carlos Sainz performed well on a track that should have suited Williams in the dry, but looked ready to challenge the car and take third place in the wet as well.
“I’m always optimistic,” he said. “You’re free to dream and I always try to think I’m doing well.
“Maybe this track suited our car in the dry. It didn’t look very promising in the wet in FP3, but we made some changes to the car that helped in the wet. I’m happy with P3.”
However, the Spaniard faces a grid drop after dangerously rejoining the track from the run-off zone ahead of Lance Stroll in Q1, forcing the Canadian to take evasive action.
George Russell qualified fourth, with the Mercedes driver just 0.869 seconds ahead of title challenger Piastri, who qualified fifth and is heading into the title decider.
Norris comfortably led Piastri on the penultimate lap, but the Australian was briefly caught by Charles Leclerc’s unfortunate yellow flag when he spun out, before being robbed by Isaac Hajjar on the back straight of Turn 12 and unable to take the final flying lap.
Liam Lawson will join Fernando Alonso, Hajjar, Leclerc and Pierre Gasly in sixth place, completing the top ten.
Nico Hulkenberg missed out on a place in Q3 due to Gasly’s extremely slow lap, leaving the Sauber driver 11th on the grid.
Lance Stroll gambled on intermediate tires late in the segment and was eliminated in 12th place. He was the only driver to try green wall rubber before Q3, but it didn’t pay off as he was unable to set a best time on full wet tires.
Haas team-mates Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman would line up in 13th and 14th place, although it was a good result for the latter, who crashed at the end of Q1 after locking up and crashing into the barrier in the run-off area at the end of the back straight. He was able to return to the pit lane with a surprisingly undamaged car and improve his time.
Franco Colapinto qualified 15th in the second Alpine after a heroic save at the final chicane to escape the barrier.
Alex Albon crashed at the final chicane on the final lap of Q1. The Williams driver marked the purple first sector (surviving the rest of the segment) and was also setting a personal best time in the second split, but crashed into the barrier at the front left corner, breaking his suspension.
He limped back to the pit lane to avoid a red flag, but his improvement was delayed and he was eliminated in 16th place.
Kimi Antonelli was 0.298 seconds short of qualifying for Q2, finishing 17th on the grid, ahead of Gabriel Bortleto and Yuki Tsunoda.
Lewis Hamilton was shockingly eliminated in last place, but the Ferrari driver never looked comfortable in the treacherous conditions, but despite crossing the line with a few seconds to spare before the checkered flag, he appeared to think he didn’t have time to do a final lap and reported seeing a red light on the main straight.
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