George Russell on pole in Las Vegas, Max Verstappen ahead of Lando Norris

LAS VEGAS – George Russell left it late to take pole position for Mercedes at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Nov 22, as Red Bull’s Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen qualified ahead of McLaren rival Lando Norris.

Verstappen, who will seal a fourth successive championship on Nov 23 (Nov 24, Singapore time) if he beats Norris, will line up fifth with the latter sixth and alongside him on the third row.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz joined Russell at the front with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly an impressive and surprising third fastest, while Charles Leclerc was fourth in the other Ferrari.

Russell had been on provisional pole after the first flying laps, but he left the best to last as others went faster on an improving track. His final effort of 1min 32.312sec was 0.098 quicker than Sainz, who had set the pace after an earlier best from Leclerc.

“I knew coming into that last Q3 lap, that would be the one that counts, it doesn’t matter what happened before then,” said Russell, who was fastest in final practice and brushed the wall with his first effort.

“I had a bit of a moment on my first run. We had to change my front wing. There was a moment I thought we wouldn’t make the flag. You have to put it on the table sometimes. I felt confident in myself and knew if I did a clean lap, I would be on the front row.”

The pole was his third of the season and fourth of his career.

Yuki Tsunoda qualified seventh for RB, with Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri eighth and Nico Hulkenberg ninth for the United States-owned Haas.

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, fastest in practice on Nov 21, was only 10th after misjudging his first effort and running wide before then having his second attempt deleted for exceeding track limits.

“I’m really quite far back so we’ll see what we can do from there,” said the Mercedes driver.

Verstappen, 62 points clear of Norris with 60 remaining to be won after Las Vegas, had been third after the opening laps with Norris fourth.

“We tried to do the best we could. We tried a lot of different things to see what was the right direction. I think what we did was the right direction, but still clearly not enough to fight for pole,” he said.

“But I’m still quite happy. We are still in front of McLaren which, for me, is a bit of a surprise, but I’m quite happy with how qualifying went.”

Norris has to beat the Dutchman by three points to keep his slim championship hopes alive.

Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez continued his run of poor form and failed at the first hurdle, qualifying 16th.

The Mexican has not scored a point since the US Grand Prix in Austin in October, and his struggles since May have hit Red Bull hard in the constructors’ standings with the champions third overall.

“Unbelievable... I couldn’t find any grip,” said Perez over team radio after being told he was out.

Both Aston Martins also failed to get through the first phase, with Lance Stroll getting only one flying lap after his mechanics raced against the clock to change his car’s energy recovery system pack.

Argentinian rookie Franco Colapinto added to Williams’ already hefty repair bill by hitting the wall and crashing in qualifying for the second race in a row.

The crash late in the second phase, which left debris scattered across the track and delayed the session, was the sixth in three races for a team whose boss James Vowles has put the cost at more than US$3 million (S$4 million). REUTERS, AFP