Leclerc claims pole position in Las Vegas, Verstappen to start from P2

Charles Leclerc won qualifying in Las Vegas at the inaugural GP weekend on the current layout. This was the Monegasque driver's third victory in qualifying and fourth pole position this season. His fastest lap was a 1:32.726. Carlos Sainz finished second, and Max Verstappen rounded off the Top 3 in qualifying.

Charles Leclerc will start from pole position on Saturday evening in Las Vegas. The Ferrari driver will start from P1 on the grid for the 23rd time in his career. Carlos Sainz finished closely behind his teammate, but the Spaniard has a 10-place grid penalty they had to repair the car following his incident in FP1. Max Verstappen made a mistake on his final lap, and finished third behind the two Ferraris.

George Russell brought home his Mercedes in P4, ahead of Pierre Gasly and the two Williams, in the order of Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant. Valtteri Bottas did well to finish eighth ahead of Kevin Magnussen, while Fernando Alonso also did not complete his final lap and finished in P10.

The second session finished without any incidents. Charles Leclerc was the quickest in Q2 ahead of teammate Sainz, as his lap was faster by more than half a second than everyone else.

While both Williams and Kevin Magnussen finished in the Top 10, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez in their fight for P2 in the drivers’ championship both got eliminated in Q2. Perez was already in the pit lane, while Hamilton could not improve. Nico Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll (who already has a five-place grid penalty after the practice sessions) and Daniel Ricciardo also missed out on a place in Q3.

On a new track for the first time under qualifying conditions, set the pace early in Q1. The first incident of the day was Sergio Perez impeding Norris in Sector 1, for which the Mexican will likely be investigated after the session. Verstappen later almost made contact with Esteban Ocon into Turn 1 during the final minutes, but it did not affect the Dutchman’s result.

After finishing second two weeks ago, Lando Norris got eliminated in the first session after Lance Stroll improved on his final lap. It was not a good beginning to Saturday for McLaren, as Oscar Piastri also finished 19th.

Yuki Tsunoda made a mistake on his final lap causing a brief yellow flag, and got knocked out. Stroll allegedly failed to slow down for the aforementioned incident and will be investigated later. Along with the Japanese driver, Guanyu Zhou, and Ocon did not qualify for Q2.