Norris takes Las Vegas GP pole in wet qualifying

Lando Norris dominated a soaking-wet qualifying session for the Las Vegas Grand Prix after title rival Oscar Piastri slumped to fifth.

Rain lashed the circuit leading up to qualifying but subsided part of the way through Q1. The track dried slowly in miserable 54-degree F conditions, and it wasn’t until Q3 that the intermediate tire became the obvious choice. But even so, with the track temperature no warmer than the ambient, conditions remained extremely slippery, and even the intermediate tire needed several fast laps to come up to temperature.

Norris brought himself up to pace gradually, starting the session eighth after his first lap and then emerging fifth with his second attempt. But he rocketed to the top spot after his third flying lap with an almost 0.6s advantage, and he was on track to improve that time by what could have been more than a second before a snap of oversteer through the final chicane brought him back down to earth.

He improved by 0.4s, but it was more than enough to take pole with a best lap of 1m 47.934s.

“Boy that was stressful – stressful as hell,” he said. “It’s slippery out there. As soon as you hit the curb, like I did, you snap one way, you snap the other way.

“I almost hit the wall, but good enough for P1 today … more rewarding on a day like this because it was a tricky one.”

Verstappen will line up alongside Norris on the front row, falling short by 0.323s.

“It was really, really slippery out there,” he said. “It’s already slippery in the dry, but in the wet it’s not fun, I can tell you that.

“I like to drive in the wet, but this felt more like driving on ice. I struggled a lot just to have any kind of grip. You risk a little bit more, but it was still by far not enough to fight for first. But still, to be on the front row is good for us. The lap felt all right. I hope the inside [line on the grid] is okay in terms of grip, but we will see.”

Carlos Sainz excelled on a track that should have suited Williams in the dry but looked set to challenge the car in the wet, to take third.

“I’m always optimistic,” he said. “Dreaming is free, and I always try to think about myself doing well.

“This track maybe suited our car in the dry. In the wet in FP3 we didn’t look very promising, but we did a few changes in the car that helped in the wet. I’m happy with P3.”

The Spaniard, however, is facing a grid drop for unsafely rejoining the track from a run-off zone in Q1 ahead of Lance Stroll, forcing the Canadian to take evasive action.

George Russell qualified fourth, the Mercedes driver 0.869s off the pace, ahead of title challenger Piastri, who is facing a title-defining moment after qualifying fifth.

While Norris comfortably accounted for Piastri on their penultimate laps, the Australian was unlucky not to get a final flying lap in after catching a brief yellow flag for the spun-out Charles Leclerc and then being mugged by Isack Hadjar into Turn 12, onto the back straight, which prevented him from taking the corner.

Liam Lawson will line up sixth ahead of Fernando Alonso, Hadjar, Leclerc and Pierre Gasly to complete the top 10.

Nico Hulkenberg was beaten to a place in Q3 by a super late lap from Gasly, leaving the Sauber driver 11th on the grid.

Lance Stroll was knocked out 12th after gambling on the intermediate tire in the second half of the segment. He was the only driver to try the green-walled rubber before Q3, and it didn’t pay dividends, with the Canadian failing to better his best time on the full-wet tire.

Haas teammates Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman will line up 13th and 14th – a good result for the latter, who crashed at the end of Q1 after locking up and sailing into the barriers in the run-off area at the end of the back straight. He returned to pit lane with a car that surprisingly lacked significant damage, allowing him to set a time.

Franco Colapinto qualified 15th in the second Alpine after a heroic save out of the final chicane kept him out of the barriers.

Alex Albon crashed at the last chicane on his final lap of Q1. The Williams driver had set a purple first sector – which survived the rest of the segment – and had set a personal-best time in the second split, but he smacked the barriers with his front-left corner, breaking his suspension.

He limped back to pit lane to avoid triggering a red flag, but late improvements meant he was eliminated in 16th.

Kimi Antonelli was 0.298s short of a spot in Q2, leaving him 17th on the grid ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto and Yuki Tsunoda.

Lewis Hamilton was a shock elimination in last, the Ferrari driver never looking fully comfortable in the treacherous conditions, but he also appeared to think he didn’t have time for a final lap despite crossing the line with seconds to spare before the checkered flag, reporting that he saw red lights on the main straight.

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