By Rory Carroll
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -Formula One championship leader Lando Norris swept to a stunning pole position for the Las Vegas Grand Prix in a wet and slippery qualifying on Friday with McLaren teammate and closest title rival Oscar Piastri only fifth.
Red Bull’s reigning world champion Max Verstappen, third in the standings after 21 of 24 races and 49 points off the lead, joined the Briton on the front row but was 0.323 slower.
Norris, who can take another huge stride towards the title in Saturday night’s race, leads Australian Piastri by 24 points and will be chasing a third win in a row at a street circuit where McLaren had expected to struggle.
The pole was his seventh of the season, equalling Verstappen’s tally, and the 16th of his career, with the last seven races all won from that position.
“Boy, that was stressful. Stressful as hell,” said Norris after a cold night session that started in steady rain with the Aston Martins on full wets and the rest on intermediates.
“It’s so slippery out there. As soon as you hit the kerb a bit wrong, like I did, you snap one way, lose the car the other way. Close to hitting the wall.
“No one has driven around here in the rain before, so it was difficult to know what to expect.”
MORE PERFORMANCE IN THE CAR
Piastri felt there was more performance in the car and hoped to make up places.
“We’ve got a good car underneath us that seems to be working well in all conditions so we can have a strong race tomorrow,” he said.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz qualified an impressive third for Williams with George Russell, last year’s winner on the famed floodlit Strip and fastest in final practice and the first two phases, fourth for Mercedes.
Russell said he had an issue with his car’s power steering at the end, while Sainz faced a stewards’ enquiry for allegedly rejoining the track unsafely.
New Zealander Liam Lawson was sixth for Racing Bulls, boosting his hopes of staying with the team next year, with Fernando Alonso seventh for Aston Martin and Isack Hadjar eighth in the other Racing Bulls.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc qualified ninth and Pierre Gasly completed the top 10 for Alpine, who are last in the standings.
Lewis Hamilton, who normally excels in wet conditions, charted a new low at Ferrari with last place at a street circuit his team had hoped would favour them.
It was the first time in his career he had been last on pace in qualifyin,. and the first time a Ferrari had qualified slowest since Giancarlo Fisichella in Abu Dhabi in 2009.
Television footage showed Hamilton hitting a bollard, which may have become stuck under the car, before the seven-times world champion failed to beat the chequered flag for a final flying lap that he aborted.
“Couldn’t get the tyres to work,” the Briton said over the radio.
Leclerc also had his hands full, his Ferrari stalling on track and then re-starting in that phase.
Alex Albon smashed his Williams’ suspension when he hit the wall at the end of an opening phase that also left Mercedes’ Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli in 17th and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda 19th.
“It was very strange, like ice. I don’t know what has happened specifically but clearly something isn’t working,” said Tsunoda.
Norris made it through Q1 in 13th, with Piastri a safer sixth, while Russell set the pace ahead of Verstappen on the treacherous surface.
The second phase was delayed slightly for repairs to the bollard at turn 14 and to clear debris from the track as the rain eased off and a dry line emerged.
Pole position then swapped around three times after the final chequered flag, with Sainz fastest and then Verstappen before Norris lapped in one minute, 47.934 seconds.
(Writing by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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