‘Stressful as hell’: Rain creates treacherous conditions in Las Vegas qualifying as Lando Norris claims pole
Lando Norris has gone quickest in Las Vegas and taken his third pole in as many races; his time of 1:47.934s pushed him to the top of the timing boards in a wet and disrupted session.
Cool conditions took drivers by surprise at the Las Vegas Street Circuit, as Max Verstappen will start on the second row, while Oscar Piastri could only post a time enough for fifth after struggling to contain his MCL39.
Rain created chaos as multiple drivers found the wall, and dominant drivers found themselves eliminated, while slower drivers were able to gamble for higher positions.
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“It was stressful, stressful as hell. So slippery out there, not the nicest of conditions,” Norris said.
Lando Norris takes pole in Las Vegas. Formula 1 via Getty Images
“No one has driven around here in the wet, one step at a time, Q1, Q2, Q3.
“All tough, but more rewarding a day like this, cause it was a tricky one.”
Multiple drivers had to immediately change to full wet tyres in the first qualifying session after finding the track full of standing water, sending drivers aquaplaning off.
The first laps were nearly 30 seconds off the normal lap times around Las Vegas, with Fernando Alonso the first to post a time of 2:00.747s.
Oscar Piastri starts in fifth for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Getty
All drivers went out with trepidation as onboards showed the lack of visibility and rain pelting down in sheets, and Ollie Bearman and Alex Albon found themselves victims of the slippery conditions and slammed into the barriers.
A shock elimination in Q1 as Albon, Kimi Antonelli, Gabriel Bortoleto, Yuki Tsunoda and Lewis Hamilton were all out after the first qualifying session.
Hamilton, although quick and a master in the rain, will start tomorrow’s grand prix in plum last after a confusion on the radio meant the Ferrari driver aborted his final lap in the session, thinking he was safe and through to Q2.
Q2 was delayed due to track repair after Albon’s incident at turn 14, and teams prepared for miserable conditions where the Pirelli tyres were unable to collect any temperature in the cold conditions.
Lewis Hamilton will start in 20th for the Las Vegas race. Getty
As the track began to dry, out in Q2 were Nico Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll, the two Haas drivers and Franco Colapinto. Piastri was one place from elimination as the McLaren drivers struggled on the cooling track.
Both Racing Bulls’ cars looked dominant as both drivers sailed into Q3, but Piastri was the first driver to break the 1:50s barrier with a 1:49.136s with six minutes to go and top the timing.
As the track was steadily drying on the racing line, Norris then took the fastest lap of the session with a 1:47.934s that gave him his third pole in three race weekends.
Verstappen joined him in second, and Williams’ Sainz will start in third alongside Russell on the second row.
McLaren Piastri spun on his last flying lap and was impeded by a late-yellow flag, meaning he could only make a fifth-place start for the Formula 1 race on Sunday (AEDT).
“I don’t know, there were a few things as well at the start of the lap that didn’t go well from an operational point of view. I had to mess around with a few things,” said Piastri to post-race media.
“Difficult to say, but I can say there was more out there we didn’t get to use.”
“I definitely think, so we’ve got a good car underneath us that is working in all kinds of conditions, I think we can have a strong race tomorrow and hopefully make up some points.”
Liam Lawson, Alonso, Hadjar, Leclerc and Gasly rounded out the top ten.
During the night, Las Vegas marshals welded more than 15 drain covers on the track after practice two was red-flagged twice for a drain cover moving as the cars drove over it.
Loose manhole covers were repaired ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas. Getty
In 2023, Sainz’s Ferrari was damaged as a drain cover was sucked into the underbody of his car just nine minutes into cars running on track in the US race’s inaugural year.
During qualifying, Mercedes was called to the stewards for not submitting their set-up sheets before the beginning of qualifying. Sainz will also go and report to the stewards after qualifying for an incident with Stroll for re-joining the track unsafely in Q1.
