Las Vegas, Nov 22 (IANS) Lando Norris claimed pole position for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the McLaren driver and Drivers’ Championship leader mastering wet conditions to finish ahead of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz while title rival Oscar Piastri settled for fifth.
It marks three consecutive pole positions for Norris, whose 1m 47.934s was nearly three-tenths faster than Verstappen during a Qualifying session which remained wet throughout.
Williams’ Sainz put in another strong Qualifying performance and finished ahead of George Russell, the Mercedes driver having topped both Q1 and Q2 sessions in the worst of the conditions.
Piastri was left in fifth having gone into the run-off area at Turn 12 on his final effort after going wheel-to-wheel with Isack Hadjar’s Racing Bulls.
The second Racing Bulls machine of Liam Lawson finished P6, as the top-10 was completed by Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, Hadjar, Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, which also ran deep at Turn 12 on his final effort, and Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.
Kick Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg missed the cut for Q3 after finishing P11 in the middle segment of Qualifying, ahead of Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), the two Haas’ of Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman, as well as Alpine’s Franco Colapinto.
Alex Albon was eliminated in Q1 after hitting the barrier on the exit of Turn 16 in the final minutes which broke the front-right suspension on his Williams.
He was joined in the drop zone by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, as Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton finished last of the 20 runners, the seven-time World Champion unable to extract performance on the wet tyre.
–IANS
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