Las Vegas (AFP) – Lando Norris maintained his charge towards a maiden Formula One crown on Friday by grabbing his third pole position in as many races at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The British McLaren driver, who has surged into a 24-point lead in the drivers championship after wins in Brazil and Mexico, clocked a fastest time of one minute 47.934 seconds in treacherous conditions. Red Bull’s reigning world champion Max Verstappen was second fastest in 1min 48.257sec with Williams’ Carlos Sainz third. Norris’s title rival and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri will start fifth after finishing more than a second off the pace.
In wet conditions on the Sin City street circuit, the 26-year-old Norris produced a dazzling flying lap to snatch pole with three blistering sectors. “Boy that was stressful, stressful as hell,” Norris said after clinching pole. “I felt like the first few sectors were good, but it’s so slippery out there. As soon as you hit the curb a little bit like I did, you snap one way and then the other way and come close to hitting the wall,” he added. “So not the nicest of conditions. But I’m happy it stopped raining and we could get a good qualifying.”
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Norris, who had looked tentative in the final practice earlier Friday when he finished bottom of the timesheets, said he had not been expecting rain during qualifying. “I had a nap and was expecting it to be dry, and then woke up and saw it was raining and thought ‘Oh crap’,” he said. Australia’s Piastri, whose title challenge has faltered in recent races, said: “There was a few things at the start of the lap that didn’t go great from an operational point of view. I had to mess around with a few things that didn’t quite go how I wanted.”
Red Bull ace Verstappen said that while he was normally comfortable driving in the wet, the combination of the Vegas circuit’s slick surface and the rain had made conditions doubly challenging. “It’s not fun, I can tell you that,” the Dutchman said. “I like to drive in the wet — this felt more like driving on ice. It took a long time to get the tires to work a little bit.”
McLaren’s Norris is aiming to tighten his grip on the championship this weekend after back-to-back wins that have left him eyeing a maiden title with just two races left on the calendar after Las Vegas. Piastri is desperately looking to make up ground in Vegas after a dramatic late collapse. Piastri was 34 points clear in the standings after winning the Dutch Grand Prix in August but has failed to even post a podium finish in the past five races. Norris, by contrast, has found consistency at the right time, following up his victory from pole in Mexico with a sprint success and another race win from the front of the grid in Sao Paulo last time out.
“I’m sure it’s going to be an interesting race especially with Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz up there as well,” Norris said. “Hopefully we can have a good race tomorrow and everyone can enjoy it.”
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton will start Saturday’s race at the back of the grid after finishing bottom of the timings in his Ferrari. It was the first time Hamilton has finished last in qualifying due to outright pace alone. “It was very slippery and the first set of tires didn’t work for us and I just struggled to generate the heat in the tires for some reason,” a downcast Hamilton said. “It’s a shame because the guys have done such a great job and the car was feeling awesome in (practice) and I really felt like we had good pace, but then the rain came.”
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