‘It’s horrible for both of them’: Pressure on slow McLaren pair in crucial Vegas qualifying — LIVE

Oscar Piastri’s world title challenge is on the brink with McLaren teammate Lando Norris claiming pole position for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

In a rain-impacted qualifying, Piastri was on provisional pole initially in Q3, before Norris took top spot on the second set of fast laps.

With all drivers staying out to keep their intermediate tyres warm on a cold and wet night, they had a third run, and Piastri was caught out by a Racing Bull on his inside which forced him into the runoff.

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“It looked like he was trying to lunge him up the inside there,” Jenson Button said on commentary.

That left Piastri down in fifth with Norris pinching pole from Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.

Piastri is likely to start fourth with Sainz facing a grid penalty for an unsafe rejoin earlier in the session.

Either way with three races left in the season, Norris leads the title race by 24 points over his McLaren teammate, and is now primed to extend his lead on Sunday afternoon (race from 3pm AEDT).

Wet conditions saw drivers split between the intermediate and full wet tyres at the beginning of Q1, with Piastri opting for the wets on his first run, as drivers struggled for grip and avoided the spray on the street circuit.

Norris, on the seemingly less suitable inters, was forced to use the run-off at the end of the main straight and complained of aquaplaning.

“It literally looked like an ice rink as soon as they put the power down,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown explained.

Incidents for Ollie Bearman and Alex Albon late in the session made things chaotic and Lewis Hamilton was caught out, eliminated in 20th behind Yuki Tsunoda, Gabriel Bortoleto, Kimi Antonelli and Albon.

Norris and Piastri had very different strategies to open Q2, the former leading out the pack to set his first lap, the latter remaining in the garage as the session began. All drivers remained on the wet tyres, as the track slowly dried after the rain stopped late in Q1.

Lance Stroll was the only driver willing to try the inters late in Q2 as Max Verstappen topped the timesheeets with four minutes left, ahead of the two Racing Bulls and two McLarens.

Piastri found himself just ninth after his final flying lap, with Norris moving to the top of the timesheets, and had to nervously wait for the Alpines and Haas-es to be certain of making it into Q3.

In the end Piastri was 10th, though seven tenths ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in 11th, with Stroll, Esteban Ocon, Ollie Bearman and Franco Colapinto also knocked out.

Piastri struck back in Q3, posting the fastest time in the opening runs, almost half a second faster than Norris – the pair split by Carlos Sainz’ Williams.

Norris went a full 0.752 seconds faster than Piastri’s provisional pole time on his second flying lap, with Piastri only improving on his initial time by a couple of tenths.

Norris then claimed pole on his final flying lap as Piastri was compromised.

Piastri trying to close gap in Las Vegas | 00:45

George Russell led the opening two qualifying sessions after also leading a caution-filled third and final practice which saw both McLaren drivers finish last.

Championship leader Norris was 3.058sec behind Russell’s time in 1:37.112 while Piastri was only marginally faster, finishing 19th quickest with a time of 1:37.023.

An electrical issue seemed to force Norris into the garage right as he was starting to put his best lap of the session together, while Piastri had a telemetry problem.

Piastri, who was 34 points clear after winning the Dutch Grand Prix on August 31, has failed to even post a podium finish in the past five races.

Norris has found consistency at the right time, following up his victory from pole position in Mexico with a sprint success and another race win from the front of the grid in Sao Paulo last time out.