The Friday in F1 Las Vegas GP was hectic in the end due to wet conditions proving to be handful, but Lando Norris took the top spot still in title fight.
The rain during Q1 on Friday in F1 Las Vegas GP only added to the drama, with the drivers forced to switch onto the less used wet tyres. There were several offs but as the session progress, it was McLaren’s Lando Norris prevailing in the end to take crucial pole position.
He didn’t know he had done the job considering how drivers kept improving but it worked out for him unlike teammate Oscar Piastri, who was only fifth. He found yellow flag on his last attempt after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc’s off and it ruined any chances of improvement for the Australian.
He could only smile about the situation after another uncontrollable situation, from which he has to recover. Unfortunately, he has to get through Red Bull’s Max Verstappen too in the process. The Dutchman had a quite run but was always in the mix for a top end finish.
He noted of needing few laps to get into the thick of things but was happy to secure the front row. Teammate Yuki Tsunoda was confused about the lack of pace in Q1, which team boss Laurent Mekies acknowledged that they put up wrong tyre pressure setup which hurt him.
He apologised to Tsunoda, who did not have a clue about it when speaking with the media. He had Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in company in Q1. The Italian missed out after late yellow flag, while the Brit struggled for grip and traction all-through.
Hamilton was left disappointed and frustrated after upbeat scene pre-qualifying. Teammate Leclerc was only ninth after tough run in wet conditions, which has troubled Ferrari a lot. Mercedes‘ George Russell was fourth despite steering wheel issue in his final run in Q3.
Norris: “Pretty nasty. Probably some of the worst—not like the worst conditions, you know, it’s been wetter. It’s just, it feels like you may as well have been out on slicks, to be honest. It was so slippery, difficult. The amount of wheelspin you have in places, how easy it was to lock tyres, the white lines, the yellow lines—just everything was pretty tough. So, yeah, even more satisfied with the end result because of how tricky it was out there today. But some good laps just to keep it controlled, keep it in a good manner through Q1, through Q2, and obviously risk a little bit more into Q3, and it paid off. So, very happy. It was tricky, especially because there’s always a risk of yellow flags and also red flags here. I’m surprised there wasn’t more, in a way, because of the difficulty today.
“But we weren’t out near the front, so I was pretty happy to wait a little bit longer down the end of the pit lane and just have some cleaner air, stay out of the way of everyone else behind, try and avoid as much as possible the yellow flags and take that risk element out of it and just let me put some laps in, build the confidence in the car. Of course, I was, I think, the only one who got one more lap at the end of the run, and that worked out perfectly. I think we were still pretty good before, and then to get the timing of—I think we did like push-push, push-cool-push or something at the end. So, yeah, just making sure the battery was ready, making sure the tyres were in good condition. And obviously, having that chance to go one more lap than everyone else worked out perfectly. Never easy on a day like today, but everything worked well. Yeah, not enough lights around here, to be honest. It wasn’t the most wet session. Some little bits of aquaplaning and stuff, but the hardest part was just trying to avoid white lines, the yellow lines, staying off the paint— the stuff they can’t really remove. I wish they could because it’s quite a bit more dangerous and tricky, especially when it’s like Q1.
“It was wet enough that you can’t really see where the lines are—road markings, zebra crossings, whatever—so you don’t know where you’re braking. It’s easy to instantly lock if you brake on the lines, and pretty dangerous from that point of view. It’s one of the challenges of street tracks. It’s the same in Australia at the beginning of the year. That’s certainly one of the biggest challenges – the kerbs, the lack of room for error around here is pretty tricky. The amount of people that made mistakes in 15-16, end of the lap over the kerbs, losing the rear. Then you’ve got this massive yellow line you have to try and avoid. My thoughts were generally just keeping it in one piece for as long as possible. Even the last corner here—fairly easy flat in the dry—not so easy in the wet, and we had quite a bit of porpoising still. So it was difficult to get the confidence to go flat. For most of qualifying, my biggest loss was just the last kink to end the lap and to start the following lap. So, yeah, difficult. Especially because of the position I’m in—knowing that I just need a good qualifying, a simple one.
“When I woke up from my nap, I was like, ‘oh God, not what I was looking forward to’. But nice to prove to myself that I could perform well in those conditions and do what I needed to do. The good feeling that I’ve had from the past few weekends has continued—even into the rain—and that’s one of the most reassuring things I’ve had for a while. I look forward to it. I’m excited for it. He’s been quick and if you expect anything less, then you don’t know what he’s capable of. So yeah, I expect a battle. I expect a battle through the whole race. But at the same time, I’m here to win. I’m not here to not take risks. I still want to go out and win tomorrow. So I’ll be making sure I can do everything that I can. But it’s still one step at a time—get a good start, good opening lap, that kind of thing—and just go from there.”
Verstappen: “Yeah, it was super slippery. You know, it felt like ice. To be honest, not a lot of fun to do. I mean, I love driving in the wet, but this for me is a little bit too much, I would say. You just have to be super careful. And honestly, I was surprised there were not too many incidents. So everyone was behaving, I think, quite well—or scared. Whatever. I think we were a little bit more competitive on the Extreme than the Inter. Just super hard to do a clean lap. You have people backing out, yellow flags, locking up yourself, 360—all of that. So yeah. We just went through qualifying without too many dramas, I would say.
“And to be on the front row is good. A bit unlucky of course with not having another lap, but I think if you look at the whole of Q3, we never really were in contention for pole anyway, so it’s fine like this. It’s a bit difficult to say. We didn’t really do any proper long running. In FP1 I did a little bit, which was not entirely to my liking. So I hope with the changes we’ve made since then that it will be a little bit better. But I’m not expecting it to be amazing. I hope we have a chance to do well.”
Piastri: “Yeah, been very tricky conditions. I think Q1, I felt very good. Q2 a few little wobbles, but Q3 I felt good again, and like things were coming to us pretty nicely. But yeah, unfortunately, not much you can do with the yellow flag. Frustrating end to the session obviously. The car and myself were quick, we’ve some pace for tomorrow which is nice to know. I mean, it was a massive guessing game, especially in these conditions where you’re improving, it’s tough. And then obviously, where I saw the yellow flag. It’s a blind corner, so I don’t know if there’s a car stopped somewhere that I’m going to have to do something suddenly. So it’s your natural reaction to slow down, obviously. And there’s a lot of risk involved in trying to game the system and lose enough time without… It is what it is.
“But I couldn’t have really done much, and if I had tried to keep pushing, it would have been a pretty big risk of a penalty. I saw him coming, obviously slowed down for the yellow [for Leclerc]. It was a very quick yellow, so by the time I had slowed down, maybe it wasn’t out for him [Hadjar]. But I think he kind of saw it was catching the back of me, and then went off the line to try and pass me. And it’s like ice off the line. So for me, that was a very secondary thing to already aborting lap. Yes, yes, it does, but it’s Las Vegas, after all, so a lot can happen. We’ve seen pretty entertaining races here the last couple of years.
“A lot of action, so hopefully I can get myself involved on the right side of that action and make up some ground. I think yes [podium is possible]. It’s difficult to know exactly where anyone sits because of the kind of lack of proper race running this weekend. But I think the car’s been pretty quick in all conditions. Quick in the rain, quick in the dry yesterday. It was similar thing yesterday, didn’t get many opportunities to use, I think we have got good pace and hopefully I can use for the good.”
Leclerc: “Unfortunately, yes. Our car has been, unfortunately, since I’m in Ferrari, that we are struggling massively in the wet. We don’t quite find the solution. It’s not a fault that we are not trying [to fix], because we’ve been trying like crazy, but it just doesn’t work. And it’s very, very frustrating, because it’s been probably my biggest strength in the junior categories coming up, and we are just struggling like crazy whenever it’s wet.
“The tyres don’t switch on, and we just have very, very poor grip. I don’t think it’s only that [tyre warm-up related], because we’ve been trying things on the tyre warm-up as well in the past, and it didn’t work, so it’s frustrating. I’ll try to do something special anyway, the thing is that we quite a high downforce which was suppose to help us in those conditions, it is not like we are starting that further up, so yeah, it is going to be tough to overtake.”
Hamilton: “Probably, yeah. Definitely it was slippery plus I couldn’t get the temperature in the tyres working. I got yellows unfortunately, same thing, different weekend. The car was feeling great in FP3 and I honestly thought it was going to [do well], yeah, I was really, really excited. Thought finally we’d have a good day, but it wasn’t meant to be. I wasn’t aware no [that I had to push]. I had a yellow flag in the last corner and then going into Turn 17, there was a yellow flag, so I had to lift. Came across the line, it was red. But I didn’t have the grip anyway, so I don’t think it would have made much difference.
“I couldn’t see anything, I hit a bollard almost in the corner, I just couldn’t see anything. Obviously it feels horrible, it doesn’t feel good. But all I can do is, I’ve just got to let it go by and try and come back tomorrow. I’ve done everything I could possibly do in terms of preparation, in terms of all the practice sessions. Today was really amazing, I just didn’t get a lap at the end, but I felt like we were quickest and to come out of qualifying 20th, I mean this year is definitely the hardest year. I’ll try tomorrow, we have got really good car. It will be really-really hard to come back from 20th.”
Antonelli: “It was tricky for everyone. Obviously, it was very slippery and just, yeah, I don’t know. The last lap was going to be good enough for top five and I took some margin in the last braking, just to avoid any bad surprises, and just still ended up locking up and losing the lap, and got knocked out. Two laps before I was in P5, I think, and then obviously to end up P17 is very frustrating.
“We were strong all weekend to be fair, we have been very fast every session even this morning in the inters, so obviously, it doesn’t hurt my confidence. We are still in the good momentum, just need to do the best in the race and focus on the next one. Yeah, sure, points [will be good]. We have got the pace, so hopefully tomorrow we can do a good start and gain places.”
Russell: “Yeah, pretty horrendous. It wasn’t fun at all, but it’s a nice challenge. You don’t want it to be the same every week. “I think that’s probably the drivers who haven’t driven in Turkey in 2020. Everybody knew it was going to be challenging. No tyres are designed for this type of circuit. I had a steering issue in Q3. I don’t know what it was. It felt like a power steering problem.
“On my second lap, I thought I had to stop the car on track because I couldn’t turn properly. I was quickest in P3, Q1, and Q2. Then on my second lap, I thought I had to stop the car on track because I couldn’t turn the steering properly. So I don’t know what it was. I feel fortunate to have qualified P4 considering. But of course, it feels like a missed opportunity.”
With three big cars out in Q1, it handed opportunities to several of the F1 midfield teams. Williams’ Carlos Sainz made the most of it after finishing third, as he had a clean run from Q1 until Q3. He felt the car was better on full wets than the intermediates, which is why they were only P3.
Teammate Alexander Albon suffered a late crash in Q1 to be knocked out of F1 qualifying. The Thai noted that he pushed a bit more knowing that it was make or break scene. The Top 10 also saw Visa Cash App RB’s Liam Lawson as high as sixth, where he thought a bit more was possible.
But he was thankful of the damp conditions which helped them to be a bit more competitive. Teammate Isack Hadjar was eighth, but felt Top 5 was possible. He was caught out by Leclerc’s yellow flag. The Frenchman had Piastri in his line of sight and since the Australian slowed, it hurt Hadjar in the end.
Aston Marti’s Fernando Alonso was elated after finishing seventh, which he thought was not at all possible after FP3. He thought the tyres performed better than expected in tricky conditions, as teammate Lance Stroll lamented the intermediate switch in Q2 which hurt him.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly knows it will be difficult to sleep after another Q3 finish. Teammate Franco Colapinto lost out after a scary moment towards the end of Q2. Haas’ Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman were disappointed after missing out on Q3, while Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto lost confidence in the car in Q1 knockout. Teammate Nic o Hulkenberg made it through and was denied Top 10 by Gasly.
Sainz: “Yeah, it was a very good lap. I thought it was a pole-worthy lap. When I closed the lap, I saw myself in P1, and then I realised I was the first car across the flag. And yeah, maybe that was not going to last very long with these two guys coming behind, but it felt like a really good quali. If anything, I think we were more competitive on the Extreme Wet in Q1 and Q2. I wish it would have stayed Ex-Wet because that was the tyre that gave me the best feeling and the best confidence. Every time we were hitting the board, we were P1. But yeah, on Inters I was expecting to go slower given our FP3 performance wasn’t great, and in the end it turned out to be just fine. But yeah, in the end, it couldn’t be.
“I think it will be more down to the pace rather than the risk that anyone can afford. I’m also starting up front, and it’s a pretty good result if we can bring it home. So I think we’re all more or less in similar positions. For me, it’s more about trying to hold on to that P3 if I can, given that there will be very fast cars coming behind with the Mercs, the other McLaren, Ferraris that were strong in the dry. So yeah, I’m gonna give it my best shot. I mean, you saw me in Baku or in Austin—when I’m up there fighting for the podium, I just try not to make mistakes and see if I can make myself as wide as possible and see if we can bring home a stronger than expected result. And I’ll be pushing to make it happen.”
Alonso: “I think P7 was unthinkable two hours ago and it was more fun than what I thought it was going to be out there tonight. I thought we could be in for a very long evening with a lot of red flags, but I’m happy with P7 in the end. The team did a good job to make sure we were on the right tyres and we maximised the session. The wet conditions have helped our performance, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
Gasly: “Yeah, that’s what I was saying. I don’t think I am going to sleep tonight with the amount of adrenaline that I still have in me, so yeah. It’s crazy conditions. The grip level was so low, didn’t drive in P3, so going into Q1 I had to figure out things very quickly. And so much evolution, it was temperature, tyre. But these are conditions I love. As you say, it’s kind of like love and hate, because it’s always a risk and reward, and how much you’re willing to take, and what you feel, and how much you can push. But yeah, inside the wheel, you can’t even blink 1/10 of a second, because always something happening. I think we probably paid a bit the price of not running in P3 because look inside now, I think we all agree that we would’ve done things differently.
“I put the inter on start of Q1, was absolute carnage. And I put them in Q3, and for me it was the same. I just had no grip from the start, couldn’t break, wheel spin in fifth gear, could not switch them on. So, yeah, we’ll review, bit of a shame there, but I think in the first place to get to where we got was a great result for us. I’d like to believe so [that I can hang on in points]. I mean, the reality is, this stage of the season I’ve stopped a bit thinking or having any sort of expectations. And I just go in the race and try to give everything I’ve got, and see what we get. So yeah, I’ve had better recalls in qualifying than in the race here last year. Fortunately, we blew up the engine the year before, we had a lot of graining. So, it will be interesting to see, but I think we should be in the mix.”
Hadjar: “No, it should have been way better. Honestly, so far this year we’ve been driving in the rain only in races, with no visibility. So I never got to really try myself in the rain in an F1 car. Today was the first time, and honestly I enjoyed it very much. We are fast. So I’m happy to have done my first F1 quali in the rain now. Minimum fifth. I was seven tenths up, you do the math. It’s fifth and if I find more time then maybe more. But it’s if, if, if. Should have done the lap earlier.
“He slowed down because there was a yellow, fair enough, but of course you are allowed to lift and keep going. He slammed the brakes, I was coming behind, yeah, it is fine. For me yes [the yellow was gone], but not for him. He slowed down a lot, yeah, it is a shame. Yeah, I am happy but I want to start further up ahead.”
Ocon: “I don’t think we really made the most out of it, which is clearly disappointing as we had much more pace. I had to back off in the penultimate lap, and when I went to push again, I lost tyre temperature and locked up going into Turn 1. I didn’t improve in my last two laps, but we clearly had Q3 pace which is disappointing, but it’s positive as the conditions out there were very hard and we showed we’re still there. We’ve been struggling lately, but that session still felt good, and although we didn’t get the maximum out of it, we still looked very competitive.”
Bortoleto: “I was actually feeling quite comfortable at the beginning of the session, and the pace felt good, but in those last two or three laps it kind of slipped away from me. This was effectively my first qualifying session fully in the wet: visibility was really tough, everything felt pretty intense and I struggled with grip. We will need to analyse the reason why everything fell off as Q1 progressed, because I just couldn’t extract what I felt I could in those final laps. Tomorrow won’t be an easy job, starting towards the back, but we’ll aim to make the most of every chance in the race.”
Albon: “Yeah. I mean, frustrating in many ways. I think we just need to review kind of where we were on track, because we were, unfortunately, in the kind of, the slow group. Where there was Lewis, myself, Liam, I think at that time we were all just slow on track. And I kept catching them all and getting to dirtier. I think in the end I had one clean lap, so I kind of had to make it count. It was my only clean lap, so I didn’t really have any rhythm at all. It was okay, made a mistake and that was it.
“I think maybe more heat of the moment, but basically we were having a good..there was a yellow flag with Bearman and then we had a five second cutoff to make the next left. And so throughout the whole of the back straight and into through the last corners, we were just talking. And just was trying to listen but also trying to focus on in these kind of conditions and yeah. It’s annoying. I did the tow link and that was it. So, yeah, frustrating.”
Here’s how F1 Las Vegas GP qualifying panned out
