Who will be fastest in Sin City tonight?
Qualifying for the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix is set to begin, but who takes pole position on the Vegas Strip is anyone’s guess. Changing weather conditions and an evolving track surface have made predictions tough for tonight’s qualifying hour.
During Thursday’s pair of practice sessions, Charles Leclerc led the way in FP1, followed by Alexander Albon, Yuki Tsunoda, Max Verstappen, and Carlos Sainz Jr. rounding out the top five. Leclerc’s time of 1:34.802 came in 0.166 seconds ahead of Albon.
But in the second hour of practice, Lando Norris, who leads the Drivers’ Championship standings by 24 points over teammate Oscar Piastri, topped the timing sheets with a lap of 1:33.602. Kimi Antonelli, Leclerc, Nico Hülkenberg, and Isack Hadjar completed the top five in FP2.
If you thought that was confusing enough, tonight’s third and final hour of practice jumbled the grid even more. With the track still wet from rains that fell earlier in the day, the session began with the drivers working their way around the Las Vegas Strip Circuit with the wet-weather intermediate tires bolted on. Eventually the surface dried out enough for some slick tire runs, and when the checkered flag flew it was last year’s winner, George Russell, atop the timing sheets.
Meanwhile, Piastri and Norris were down in P19 and P20, respectively. That might have been somewhat misleading due to how the session flowed — and Norris bailed out of one of his final push laps after going purple through the second sector, perhaps keeping his full pace close to his vest — but still, what happens later tonight remains a mystery.
We’ll have all of qualifying covered for you here at SB Nation, which starts at 11:00 p.m. Eastern on Friday night. So check back early and often!
Las Vegas Grand Prix provisional grid
Here is the provisional grid for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Results will be filled in throughout the session.
| Row | Position | Driver | Team | Position | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Row 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Row 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||
| Row 3 | 5 | 6 | ||||
| Row 4 | 7 | 8 | ||||
| Row 5 | 9 | 10 | ||||
| Row 6 | 11 | 12 | ||||
| Row 7 | 13 | 14 | ||||
| Row 8 | 15 | 16 | Alexander Albon | Williams | ||
| Row 9 | 17 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 18 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber |
| Row 10 | 19 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | 20 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari |
F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying
Here is how the qualifying hour unfolded.
Q1
With minutes to go until the start of qualifying, the skies opened, and the rain began to fall again.
Drizzle earlier in the day led to a tricky final hour of practice ahead of qualifying. Intermediate tires were the compound of choice for the first 30-plus minutes of FP3, and those that made the switch to slick tires found the going rather slippery.
When Q1 began, two of the first two drivers to take to the track — the Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll — took to the circuit with the full wet compound. Most of the other drivers opted for the green-walled intermediates.
Rain was set to end in 14 minutes, but with just 16 minutes remaining in the first segment of qualifying, Q1 was guaranteed to be a wet and perhaps surprising affair.
Pierre Gasly, one of the drivers who took to the grid on the intermediate compound, was quickly called back into his garage to bolt on a set of the full wet tires.
Alonso posted the first time of the session, coming in at 2:03.249.
For comparison, Norris topped FP2 with a 1:33.602.
As the clock struck 12 minutes remaining in the session, every driver on the track was rocketing around the Vegas strip with the full wet tires.
When the clock hit eight minutes remaining in Q1, Gasly was at the top of the table, followed by Oliver Bearman, Stroll, Albon, and Liam Lawson in the top five.
Norris was down in P11 while his two rivals for the Drivers’ Championship — Piastri and Verstappen — were in the elimination zone.
Norris jumped up to P2 as the clock hit five minutes remaining, behind only Esteban Ocon. Norris was soon shuffled down to P6 thanks to laps from Carlos Sainz Jr., Piastri, and Verstappen.
As the final laps of Q1 ticked down, the five drivers in the drop zone were Stroll, Gabriel Bortoleto, Franco Colapinto, Lewis Hamilton, and Yuki Tsunoda. But times were tumbling, so there was still room for improvement.
Bearman then slid off the track and into the barrier at Turn 14, and that set off a chain reaction that ended in disaster for a few different drivers. Albon and Hamilton were behind Bearman and had to lift for a yellow flag, and when Albon went to accelerate again and pick up time — as he was in the drop zone at that point — he tagged the wall hard, ending his session.
When the checkered flag flew, Albon, Antonelli, Bortoleto, Tsunoda, and Hamilton were the five drivers eliminated.
