George Russell delivered on Mercedes’ potential in practice to secure pole for the Las Vegas Grand Prix ahead of Carlos Sainz Jnr.
Russell snatched pole from the Ferrari driver with the final lap over the line at the end of Q3, beating Sainz by less than a tenth of a second.
Pierre Gasly secured a stunning third on the grid with championship contenders Max Verstappen in fifth and Lando Norris sixth. However two mistakes in Q3 left Lewis Hamilton 10th on the grid.
Q1
Conditions were slightly cooler than third practice but warmer than had been expected heading into the weekend as qualifying began. George Russell was the first driver to head out onto the track on a set of medium tyres, but he returned immediately into the pit lane to switch onto softs.
With a cold track, most drivers opted to complete a warm-up lap after their out lap before pushing on their second timed lap. Oscar Piastri went quickest of the first batch of laps with a 1’34.058, with team mate Lando Norris mere hundredths of a second behind, and Max Verstappen three tenths slower than the McLarens with his first attempt in seventh.
The McLarens were replaced at the top of the times by Charles Leclerc on his first attempt, but both improved with their next efforts to reclaim the top two positions. Then Russell went quickest of all with a 1’33.363, with Leclerc moving up to second by going just under a tenth slower than the Mercedes.
Lance Stroll’s final practice had ended early with an ERS problem and the Aston Martin driver was only able to take to the track in the final three minutes. He only had a single lap to try to make it through into Q2.
Red Bull chose to leave their drivers on a single set of soft tyres, with Sergio Perez’s best time only good enough for 15th. When Yuki Tsunoda improved with his final lap, that dropped Perez down to 16th position and saw him eliminated from Q1 for the sixth time this season.
Fernando Alonso and Alexander Albon also went no further, the latter unable to follow Williams team mate Franco Colapinto into Q2. Valtteri Bottas, who has a five-place grid penalty, was knocked out 19th with Stroll slowest after his only flying lap attempt.
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Q1 result
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Q2
With Perez eliminated, Verstappen had no opportunity for a tow from his team mate for the rest of qualifying. But the greater concern for the championship leader was first to get…
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