F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying results: Lando Norris takes pole position

Who will be faster in Sin City tonight?

Qualifying for the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix is ​​about to begin, but no one knows who will take pole position on the Las Vegas Strip. Changing weather conditions and evolving track surfaces have made predictions for tonight’s qualifying time difficult.

During Thursday’s pair of practice sessions, Carlos Leclerc led the way in FP1, followed by Alejandro Albon, Yuki Tsunoda, Max Verstappenand Carlos Sainz Jr. completing the top five. Leclerc’s time of 1:34.802 came in 0.166 seconds ahead of Albon.

But in the second hour of practice, Lando Norris, who leads the Drivers’ Championship standings with 24 points over his teammate Oscar Piastri, He topped the timesheets with a lap of 1:33.602. Kimi AntonelliLeclerc, Nico Hulkenberg, and Isaac Hadjar completed the top five in FP2.

If you thought that was confusing enough, tonight’s third and final hour of practice confused the gridiron even more. With the track still wet from rain that fell earlier in the day, the session began with the drivers lapping the Las Vegas Strip Circuit with the wet-weather intermediate tires bolted on. Finally, the surface dried enough for some slick tire racing, and when the checkered flag waved, he was last year’s winner. George Russellon top of the timing sheets.

Meanwhile, Piastri and Norris dropped to P19 and P20, respectively. That might have been a bit misleading given how the session flowed, and Norris was saved from one of his final push laps after turning purple in the second sector, perhaps keeping all his pace close to his vest, but even so, what happens later tonight remains a mystery.

We will have all the requirements covered for you here at SB Nationwhich begins at 11:00 pm Eastern Time on Friday night. So check back early and often!

Update: Norris takes pole position for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Read on to see how the session went.

Temporary grid for the Las Vegas Grand Prix

Here is the provisional grid for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The results will be completed throughout the session.

F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix Classification

This is how the qualifying hour unfolded.

With minutes left before the start of qualifying, the sky opened and the rain began to fall again.

The day’s drizzle made for a difficult last hour of practice before qualifying. Intermediate tires were the compound of choice for the first 30 minutes of FP3, and those who switched to slicks found the track quite slippery.

When Q1 began, two of the first two drivers to take to the track, the Aston Martin pairing of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, took to the circuit with completely wet compounds. Most other drivers opted for the green-walled intermediates.

The rain was scheduled to end in 14 minutes, but with just 16 minutes remaining in the first segment of qualifying, Q1 was guaranteed to be a wet and perhaps surprising affair.

Pierre Gasly, one of the drivers who took to the grid on the intermediate compound, was quickly called to his garage to fit a set of wet tyres.

Alonso set the first time of the session, with a time of 2:03.249.

For comparison, Norris led FP2 with a 1:33.602.

As the clock read 12 minutes remaining in the session, every driver on the track was racing down the Las Vegas strip with completely wet tires.

When the clock reached eight minutes remaining in Q1, Gasly was at the top of the table, followed by Oliver Bearman, Stroll, Albon and Liam Lawson in the top five.

Norris was in P11 while his two rivals for the Drivers’ Championship, Piastri and Verstappen, were in the elimination zone.

Norris jumped to P2 with the clock showing five minutes remaining, only behind Esteban Ocon. Norris soon dropped to sixth thanks to the laps of Carlos Sainz Jr., Piastri and Verstappen.

As the final laps of Q1 progressed, the five drivers in the relegation zone were Stroll, Gabriel Bortoleto, Franco Colapinto, Lewis Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda. But times were tough, so there was still room for improvement.

Bearman then went off the track and hit the barrier in Turn 14, setting off a chain reaction that ended in disaster for a few different drivers. Albon and Hamilton were behind Bearman and had to get up for a yellow flag, and when Albon went to accelerate again and gain time, as he was in the relegation zone at the time, he hit the wall hard, ending his session.

When the checkered flag waved, Albon, Antonelli, Bortoleto, Tsunoda and Hamilton were the five drivers eliminated.

When the pit lane opened, the first driver to emerge from his garage was none other than Norris, who waited at the front of the queue for Q2 to begin. The 15 drivers took to the circuit with the completely wet compound mounted on their respective rivals.

Norris cut the beam with a 1:53.302 to set the early benchmark, with Russell, Stroll, Lawson and Gasly completing the top five. Then came Verstappen’s first push lap, which was good to put the four-time drivers’ champion into fifth position.

Piastri’s first attempt only served for 11th place.

The times began to tick, as Norris dropped to fifth position thanks to the laps of Verstappen, Sainz, Stroll and Alonso. He became sixth when his teammate achieved a 1:52.680.

Halfway through Q2, the five drivers in the elimination zone were Ocon, Hadjar, Gasly, Colapinto and Hülkenberg.

Hadjar left the relegation zone with a tremendous lap that took him to P1 for a moment. Verstappen’s next push lap put him at the top of the timesheets, just ahead of the VCARB duo of Hadjar and Lawson in P2 and P3, respectively.

When the clock showed three minutes remaining, the five drivers in danger were Leclerc, Bearman, Hülkenberg, Colapinto and Gasly. Gasly then jumped to P8, and Leclerc also made a jump, reaching P6 to get out of the elimination zone.

Norris jumped to P1 as the clock reached a minute from the end, but things became more stressful for his McLaren team-mate, and Piastri cut the beam with a lap that was only good for ninth place. With times slipping, the Australian driver needed to put in another solid lap to book his spot in Q3.

Piastri’s final push lap in Q2 did not improve his position, but he survived.

Barely, as he advanced in tenth position, as Gasly’s final lap was good for seventh, leaving Hülkenberg in the relegation zone and dragging Piastri to last place in Q3. Hülkenberg, Stroll, Ocon, Bearman and Colapinto were the five drivers eliminated at the end of Q2.

When it was time for Q3, 12 minutes were put on the clock, and it was Leclerc who led the drivers out, followed by the McLaren pairing of Norris and Piastri in that order.

The final fight for pole position in Sin City was underway, as were the intermediate tyres.

Leclerc set the benchmark with a 1:52.060, but Hadjar moved into P1 soon after, only to be overtaken by Sainz when the Williams driver set a lap of 1:50.880. However, the first few laps with the intermediates seemed like a warm-up, as in the following push laps the times really started to drop. Norris moved into P1, immediately followed by Piastri, who overtook his McLaren teammate to take first place on the timesheets. Sainz then dropped Norris to third with a good lap, splitting the McLarens.

Norris then jumped to the front with a 1:48.394, more than seven tenths ahead of Piastri, who was in P2 at the time. A subsequent effort by Piastri brought him within 0.577 seconds of Norris, but the clock was below 90 seconds and time was becoming an issue for the remaining ten drivers.

When those final laps came, Sainz moved into P1 for the time being, only to be passed by Verstappen a moment later. But the two McLarens were still on the track and Norris was making a thunderous effort behind them. He slid through the chicane at Turns 14, 15 and 16, but was able to get the speed when he needed it to take pole position just ahead of Verstappen.

Piastri settled for fifth place behind his two title rivals.

But for Norris, this marks three consecutive pole positions as the McLaren driver looks to inch closer to his first Drivers’ Championship.