The British Lando Norris (McLaren), leader of the World Cup Formula 1, This Friday he secured first place on the grid for the Grand Prize of vegas in an exciting qualifying in the rain.
Winner of the last two races, Norris will be in a position to deliver an almost definitive blow on Saturday in the capital of the game, the penultimate test of the calendar.
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The Briton was the one who best adapted to the extremely slippery conditions caused by the early rain until snatch the pole in the last breath from Max Verstappen (Red Bull) by 0.323 seconds.
“That was stressful as hell,” Norris acknowledged after taking first place on his last attempt.
“I felt like the first few sectors were good, but it’s very slippery out there. As soon as you touch the curb a little bit, like I did, the car goes out of control and you get dangerously close to the wall,” he described.
“They are not the most pleasant conditions. But I am happy that the rain has stopped and we have been able to do a good qualifying,” he said.
Although he usually feels comfortable underwater, Verstappen acknowledged that the impact of the rain on the asphalt of the casino avenue was too challenging.
“It’s not fun, I can assure you,” said the Dutchman. “I like driving in the rain, but this felt more like driving on ice. It took a long time to get the tires working a little.”
The defending champion is one of the two drivers who can still prevent Norris from opening his record.
Australian Oscar Piastri, the other candidate, saw his McLaren teammate beat him by 1.027 seconds in qualifying and will have to come back from fifth position.
“There were some things at the beginning of the lap that didn’t go well from an operational point of view,” Piastri acknowledged. “I had to deal with some things that didn’t go my way.”
– Hamilton disaster –
The Spanish Carlos Sainz (Williams) slipped among the favorites until he settled in third starting place for the Grand Prix on Saturday, which will start at 8:00 p.m. local (04:00 GMT on Sunday).
To Norris, who takes 24 points from Piastri and 49 to Mad Max, it was his third consecutive pole after those achieved in Mexico and Brazil, where he added victories with which he unseated Piastri from the World Championship leadership.
Now he has a golden opportunity to travel to the last two tests in Qatar and Abu Dhabi with everything in his favor to end Verstappen’s four-year reign.
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The Argentine Franco Colapinto entered the second part of the classification but a mistake caused him to skid and finish last in the sector.
The young Alpine driver will start from fifteenth place while the Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) will start from eighteenth.
The British Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), seven-time world champion, experienced one of the worst classifications of his career by finishing in twentieth and last place.