The rain, as usual, helped to produce no shortage of twists and turns even though the name of the day's poleman was not particularly surprising. In fact, the 1'47.934 clocked on the last available attempt gave Lando Norris the pole start in the Las Vegas GP, but unlike on other occasions, it was far from easy for McLaren's British driver to pull it off given the risks he took, sometimes going dangerously close to the barriers.
Neither was Max Verstappen's second position surprising, the Dutchman performing solidly with his Red Bull in spite of a slippery track that put him under stress, while probably no one expected Carlos Sainz to finish third with the Williams, the Spaniard more able than others to read the evolution of a track that, between Q2 and Q3 led the drivers to switch from extreme wet tyres to intermediates.
Geroge Russell (Mercedes) had been fastest in the third free practice session, but in qualifying had to settle for fourth place, ahead of the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, who only for a moment appeared able to slot into the top 3, and the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson. The Faenza-prepared car seemed particularly at home on the wet track and in low temperatures, so much so that Isack Hadjar finished eighth after also gaining the lead for a few minutes.
Seventh was Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin, while Ferrari disappointed both with Charles Leclerc, only ninth after being forced to abort the last lap following a mistake, and with Lewis Hamilton who ended up at the back of the grid, slowed first by yellow flags because of incidents for Bearman (Haas) and Albon (Williams), and then unable to get his tyres working properly. Pierre Gasly's tenth fastest time for Alpine and Andrea Antonelli's seventeenth for Mercedes were noteworthy.
"I had a good pace all weekend and I think we will be competitive in the dry as well. Clearly there are some unknowns for tomorrow since no one ran with much fuel on board. It was stressful. Luckily it stopped raining," were Norris' words.
"It was really slippery and not much fun at all. Getting the tyres warmed up took a long time, but the front row is positive," was Mad Max's analysis.
"I'm an optimist so I believed in it. The layout of the circuit suits my single-seater in the dry and from the first round of Q1 I was competitive. Only with the intermediates did I imagine that the others would catch up," Sainz Jr. commented.
For details here is the link to Motorsport.com.
