Formula 1

Norris eyes ultimate F1 prize after securing Las Vegas pole

Fraser Masefield
3 weeks ago
5 min read

Lando Norris put himself in the best possible position to drive home his advantage in the quest for a first F1 drivers’ title by securing pole position for the Las Vegas GP.

The McLaren driver, who has catapulted himself into the championship lead following wins in Mexico and Brazil posted a best mark of 1m 47.934s to beat Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and George Russell to pole in wet conditions.

Title rival and teammate Oscar Piastri could only manage fifth on the grid for a race he surely must win to get his challenge back on track.

“It was stressful, stressful as hell! I didn’t know no-one else was going to get a lap after me,” Norris is quoted on the official F1 website. “Not the nicest of conditions but I’m happy it stopped raining and we could get a good Qualifying.

“You need a good car to do it first of all. The team did a good job. To be honest I was having a little nap before Quali and I was expecting it to be dry.

“I felt like the first two sectors were good but it’s so slippery out there. As soon as you hit the kerb a little bit wrong like I did, you snap one way, you lose the car the other way, close to hitting the wall but good enough for P1 today.”

For Verstappen, a fifth successive drivers’ title is still a real long shot, but the Dutch maestro will not give up trying and could still have a part to play in deciding the outcome.

“It’s already slippery in the dry, but in the wet it’s not fun,” Verstappen is quoted on BBC Sport. “It felt more like driving on ice. I did feel we were a little more competitive on the extreme tyre. We were not quite competitive enough to fight for pole but second is still good.

“Excited for tomorrow, I hope the inside [of the grid] is OK in terms of grip but we will see.”

As for Piastri, starting four places behind his in-form teammate will come as another blow to his diminishing title chances.

“It was very slippery and the first set of tyres didn’t work for us and I just struggled to generate the heat in the tyres for some reason.

“It’s a shame because the guys have done such a great job and the car was feeling awesome in FP3 and I really felt like we had good pace, but then the rain came. There’s not a lot to say, to be honest.”

Of the other drivers, Sainz was arguably the star of the day. They say that wet weather is the greatest leveller of all where driver skill comes more into play than the machinery surrounding him.

“Very happy after one of the trickiest qualifying’s of the year!” said Sainz on the official Williams F1 website. “From my first lap today, I’ve felt at home with the car. Every time I was closing in on my lap we were at the top of the field and I was enjoying myself out there in these conditions.

“Despite opening my last attempt a bit early, I knew I had a shot at pole and for a moment I thought I had it! But two very quick cars behind me were able to improve and edge us out. Still, P3 is an amazing result for the team and we have to feel proud of the job done.”

But for Lewis Hamilton, Las Vegas represented a real low point in his F1 career, qualifying dead last for the first time on pace alone.

“It’s very annoying, of course, because I felt in [FP3] that the car was feeling awesome,” said Hamilton via the F1 official website. “Honestly, I thought it was going to be a great day, but it’s turned out to be the worst. So it obviously can’t get much worse than that.

“I just don’t really have words for it,” said Hamilton following his Q1 exit. “It’s obviously not good enough and I didn’t have any – I couldn’t get any temperature into the tyres. I just had a lot of understeer and then I think one of my front brakes was glazed, so I was really struggling to stop in the corners.”

Fraser Masefield

Fraser is a sports and motorsports editor with over 25 years experience. The former head editor of WilliamsF1, BMW Motorsport, Jaguar Racing and Virgin Media, he has also worked for Autosport, ESPNF1 and Eurosport amongst others.

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