Lando Norris Secures Pole Position in a Chaotic Las Vegas Grand Prix
Las Vegas – Lando Norris’s quest for his first world title continues, after the driver secured pole position in a qualifying session marked by rain and challenges at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Meanwhile, his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, could only secure fifth place. Norris improved on his last lap in Q3, setting a time of 1:47.934, beating Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.323 seconds. Piastri, who had briefly led the timesheet in the initial phase of Q3, encountered Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar at Turn 12 on his final fast lap, relegating him to fifth place. With 84 points still up for grabs between Saturday night’s Las Vegas Grand Prix and the end of the season, Norris leads Piastri by 24 points in the standings and has a 49-point lead over Verstappen, who is in third place. If the three title contenders finish the race in the position in which they start, Norris would extend his lead over Piastri by 15 points and increase his gap with Verstappen by another seven, which would create the possibility of securing the title at next week’s Qatar Grand Prix.
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Carlos Sainz secured a surprising third place on the grid for Williams, with a time just 0.039 seconds behind Verstappen. George Russell of Mercedes, who led the last practice session, secured fourth place on the grid. Liam Lawson will start sixth for Racing Bulls, with Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin in seventh place, Hadjar in eighth, Charles Leclerc of Ferrari in ninth and Pierre Gasly of Alpine in tenth. The rain before qualifying significantly reduced grip levels on the street circuit, with the 20 drivers struggling to stay within the track limits. Only Alex Albon and Oliver Bearman made contact with the barriers, but yellow flags were shown regularly due to drivers negotiating their way out of the escape areas. Nico Hülkenberg missed a spot in Q3 by more than 0.6 seconds after conditions progressively improved during Q2, and set his best time a few minutes before the end. The Sauber driver will line up on the grid in 11th place, ahead of Lance Stroll of Aston Martin in 12th place, while Esteban Ocon and Bearman of Haas took 13th and 14th place, respectively. Franco Colapinto of Alpine recorded the 15th best time after suffering a big slide on the exit of turn 16 on his last fast lap. Albon will start the race in 16th place after damaging his front wing and right front suspension against the barrier on his final fast lap in Q1. Albon was exiting Turn 16 when he lost the rear of his Williams, overcorrected and made contact with the outside barrier. Kimi Antonelli from Mercedes will start 17th after struggling to complete a lap when conditions were better at the end of Q1, leaving him one position ahead of his fellow rookie Gabriel Bortoleto in Sauber. Yuki Tsunoda took the 19th best time for Red Bull, while Lewis Hamilton’s disappointing season continued with the slowest time of all, almost four seconds behind the fastest Q1 time set by Russell. Hamilton, seven-time world champion, said he struggled to get his full wet tires working during Q1. The result marked his worst qualifying result since joining Ferrari earlier this year.
