By Mark Gero
Even with the opening session of qualifying for Saturday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix in a wet and later drying track, Lando Norris proved that the conditions were still suitable as the McLaren driver took pole position Friday night with a time of 1:47:934, just ahead of Red Bulls Max Verstappen with the Williams of Carlos Sainz third, the first time since Baku that the Spaniard earned the second row.
Norris set the fastest time with just under three minutes left, as many of the other drivers were looking for a dry line on the circuit to improve their position.
Norris was overjoyed afterwards but admitted that he never went through such an ordeal.
“That was stressful, stressful as hell,” Norris said. “I didn’t know no-one else would get a lap after me. The first two sectors were good. As soon as you hit the kerb a little bit wrong it’s tricky, it snapped one way and then the other but good enough for pole.
No-one’s driven here in the wet before. After Q1, every corner you felt like you could crash every corner. One lap at a time. It was a tricky one.”
Defending race winner George Russell had the quickest times in the first two sessions but could not find his rhythm and had to settle for fourth in his Mercedes. Norris’s championship contender, Oscar Piastri, could not improve his McLaren’s time, considering that he had the lead at the early part of the final session. The Australian finished in fifth. Liam Lawson had a perfect qualifying to finish sixth, just ahead of the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso. The second Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar took eighth as a disappointing run from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc placed him in ninth. Pierre Gasly, who for the first time in a while, made it to the top ten final qualifying session in his Alpine as the Frenchman finished tenth.
A big disappointment for the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton, who was in the top three in the earlier practice, was knocked out in the opening qualifying session. The Williams Alex Albon also hit the barriers in the opening wet session, tearing off his front end.
The Haas of Oliver Bearman was out in the second session as the Briton struck the barriers at turn 14.
Racing will be on Saturday evening local time which will start at 20:00 hours, which expects to have a dry circuit. With UK start time of 4am GMT.
WHEEL2WHEEL REPORTS 