Lando Norris maintained his charge towards a maiden Formula One crown on Friday by grabbing his third pole position in as many races at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The British McLaren driver — who has surged into a 24-point lead in the drivers championship after wins in Brazil and Mexico — clocked a fastest time of one minute 47.934 seconds in treacherous conditions.
Red Bull’s reigning world champion Max Verstappen was second fastest in 1min 48.257sec with Williams’ Carlos Sainz third. Norris’s title rival and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri will start fifth after finishing more than a second off the pace. In wet conditions on the Sin City street circuit, the 26-year-old Norris produced a dazzling flying lap to snatch pole with three blistering sectors. “Boy that was stressful, stressful as hell,” Norris said after clinching pole. “I felt like the first few sectors were good, but it’s so slippery out there. As soon as you hit the curb a little bit like I did, you snap one way and then the other way and come close to hitting the wall,” he added. “So not the nicest of conditions. But I’m happy it stopped raining and we could get a good qualifying.” Norris, who had looked tentative in the final practice earlier Friday, when he finished bottom of the timesheets, said he had not been expecting rain during qualifying. “I had a nap and was expecting it to be dry, and then woke up and saw it was raining and thought ‘Oh crap’,” he said. Australia’s Piastri, whose title challenge has faltered in recent races, said: “There was a few things at the start of the lap that didn’t go great from an operational point of view.