Las Vegas GP Qualifying: Norris beats Verstappen in the rain
F1 NewsSaturday, 22 November 2025 at 06:11
Lando Norris pipped Max Verstappen to take pole in the dying moments of a thrilling qualifying for the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix as rain delivered a curveball.
Norris was dreading coming to Las Vegas, a track where McLaren have historically struggled, but he threw all that behind him after a masterful drive in the most treacherous of conditions to take his seventh pole in the 2025 Formula 1 season.
The weekend in Las Vegas has been far from straightforward so far with low temperature and grip conditions as well as rain making both teams' and drivers' lives quite difficult and perhaps FP3 summed the weekend up as it started in wet conditions and ended with a dry track.
But the amount of rain that hit The Strip ahead of qualifying meant that the full Wet tyre was the compound of choice to make sure cars remained on track with aquaplaning.
The first victim, the big name, was Lewis Hamilton who was out of Q2 and could not manage more than 20th on the grid as he blamed his inability to put temperature into his tyres for his disastrous result.
The other major story from Q1 was Alex Albon finding the barriers at Turn 16 and busting hid front right suspension. Game over.
But then it was a bit more straightforward in Q2, as drivers got into the rhythm, with no major surprises aside from a close call for Oscar Piastri who made Q3 by the skin of his teeth.
It was about the timing
In the end, it was basically about keeping your car on track and timing your lap as late as possible to make sure the track was at its best which is exactly what Norris did on a day when Verstappen had no answer and had to settle for second as Carlos Sainz showed his worth for Williams taking the third spot on the starting grid of the Grand Prix.
However, the Spaniard's third place is under threat as he is being investigated for unsafe rejoining the track in Q1.
George Russell showed earlier promise, topping Q2, but then did not enjoy the same pace on Intermediates that came into use in the top ten shootout. He was fourth fastest ultimately while his teammate, Kimi Antonelli, was eliminated from Q1 and will start the Grand Prix from 17th.
Russell also may be penalized as it appeared that Mercedes did not file his car setup documents.
Piastri was never close to threatening his teammate, especially in Q3 and managed fifth, blaming the Yellow flag towards the end, and was over a second off the pace, and ahead of the superb Liam Lawson who delivered big time for the Racing Bulls and was sixth fastest.
Fernando Alonso dragged his Aston Martin up to seventh ahead of Isack Hadjar who concluded a solid qualifying for the Racing Bulls being eighth fastest.
Charles Leclerc, the only Ferrari remaining towards the end was ninth after a mistake ruined his final lap as Pierre Gasly, once again, overdelivered for Alpine and will line up tenth on the grid of the Grand Prix.
What the top three said
After his 16th F1 career pole, Norris said: "Boy that was stressful, stressful as hell! I didn't know no one else would get a lap after me.
"I knew the first two sectors were good. It's so slippery out there. As soon as you hit the kerb a bit wrong, like I did, you snap one way, lose the car the other way. Close to hitting the wall!
"Good enough for P1. Not the nicest of conditions but I'm happy it stopped raining and we could get a good qualifying on," he concluded.
Verstappen added: "It was really, really slippery out there. It's already slippery in the dry and in the wet it's not fun.
"I like to drive in the wet. This felt more like driving on ice. It took a long time to get the tyres working. I do feel we were more competitive on the extreme tyre, but the track was improving so we had to move on to the inter.
"We struggled to have any kind of grip. On the final lap you risk a little bit more, but it was still by far not enough to fight for first.
"Still to be on the front row I think is good for us. I'm excited for tomorrow. I hope the inside is ok in terms of grip, but we'll see," the reigning F1 Champion concluded.
As for Sainz, he commented: "I'm always optimistic. I always try to think of myself doing well.
"This track suited our car in the dry. In the wet in FP3, we didn't look very promising but we made some changes to the car that helped in the wet which allowed me to go fastest in Q1, Q2.
"On the intermediates I knew the others would catch up a bit. I'm happy with P3. I would have loved to have been on pole but we were not quite there," the Williams driver concluded.
Q1: Rain takes no prisoners, Hamilton out!
While rain was expected towards the end of the final practice session it ended up arriving ahead of qualifying which meant Q1 started in wet conditions with Intermediate or even Wet tyres as track temperatures at 13 degrees Celsius as air temperature was 12 degrees.
Alonso lined up first at the pitlane exit waiting with the green light as a queue formed behind him as drivers rushed to start their qualifying.
The Spaniard was on full wets with his teammate, Lance Stroll on the same compounds as others went on the Intermediates.
Norris soon radioed asking his team asking them to keep an eye on the Aston Martins to see how they go.
Russell, Hadjar and Verstappen all had off moments and soon driver started diving into the pits for full Wet tyres as Ferrari and Williams stuck with the Inters, but not for long as Norris reported aqualplaning.
It was about putting in the laps continuously as lap times were expected to drop with further running as teams have fueled their cars enough for more than one flying lap as the Yellow flag kept appearing with drivers going off so many times it was hard to keep track of that.
With seven minutes remaining, Tsunoda, Piastri, Sainz, Verstappen and Leclerc - who had his time deleted - were in the drop zone.
With time continuously improving, no one was safe and it was about to putting your best lap towards the end as much as possible.
Bearman then went straight into the run-off area at Turn 11, his car not even stopping and hitting the barriers bringing out a Yellow flag.
But then Albon then hit the wall and broke his front right suspension and drove his car with three wheels back to the pit.
In the end, Russell led the way into Q2 with a lap time of 1:53.144, 0.314s faster than Verstappen who was second as Alonso was third.
The rest of the top 15: Stroll - Gasly - Piastri - Hulkenberg - Ocon - Leclerc - Lawson - Colapinto - Sainz - Norris - Hadjar - Bearman.
Albon, who crashed, was classified as 16th with Antonelli in 17th as Gabriel Bortoleto was 18th ahead of Tsunoda in 19th while the big shock was Hamilton who was dead last.
"Couldn't get the tyres to work," the seven-time F1 Champion radioed.
Q2: Piastri barely makes Q3
The rain stopped and Q2 was delayed a bit as marshals went on fixing the barriers were Albon crashed his Williams at the end of Q1.
Norris drove out of his garage first with full Wet tyres on his McLaren and went on to the pitlane exit to book his place.
The blue-walled tyres were the choice as it was not yet clear whether the Intermediates were ready to cope with the amount of water in the track.
Norris posted a lap first, went fastest with Stroll second behind him but then Russell went second as more drivers started their timed laps.
The first runs yielded: Norris - Russell - Stroll - Lawson - Verstappen - Alonso - Sainz - Gasly - Hadjar - Ocon - Piastri - Hulkenberg - Colapinto - Bearman - Leclerc.
But that did not last long as drivers were soon going for another lap in a bid to improve. Russell had an off moment and brought out a brief Yellow flag.
Again drivers went on with their business getting more confident with every lap as the track evolved and lap times improved and names continued to be reshuffled on the timing screens.
Then Aston Martin went brave with Stroll and put the Canadian on the Intermediate tyres. The first to do so. That did not work...
The Colapinto survived a huge moment in Turn 16, miraculously holding a big snap and kept going.
In the end, Russell put in the fastest lap of Q2, a 1:50.935, 0.135s faster than Hadjar while Sainz was third, 0.209s off the pace.
The rest of the top ten were: Norris - Verstappen - Lawson - Gasly - Alonso - Leclerc - Piastri.
In the drop zone were Hulkenberg in 11th, losing out to Piastri by 0.655s, while Stroll was 12th despite trying to go for the Intermediate tyres.
Ocon was 13th in the Haas, ahead of Bearman who was 14th in the sister car as Colapinto was 15th.
Q3: Norris leaves his best for last!
Leclerc led the pack out on track with Intermediates on his Ferrari with all other drivers going for the same choice of tyres as the track dried up even more.
Leclerc started his timed lap first as Norris and Piastri started theirs right behind him in the McLarens. Norris went off on his outlap at Turn 7 by the way.
Leclerc went fastest then Norris went second behind him as Piastri went second only for Hadjar to go to the top.
Then Sainz went to the top with Lawson in fourth as Alonso slotted in seventh with Verstappen then going sixth fastest.
Leclerc, Norris, and Piastri went again, but the Ferrari driver went off at Turn 14.
Norris improved to go fastest as Piastri beat him and went even faster - less than six minutes remaining and the order was: Piastri - Sainz - Norris - Lawson - Verstappen - Alonso - Hadjar - Leclerc - Gasly - Russell.
But, naturally, that order did not last long as drivers kept putting in the laps as the track continued to dry up and improve.
With the running over and after a brief provisional pole for Verstappen, Norris came in storming on his final lap, denying the Dutchman pole claiming it for himself as a Yellow flag caused by Leclerc meant no one else could improve.
So it was Norris on pole with a lap time of 1:47.934, 0.323s clear of Verstappen as Sainz was 0.039s further behind in third.
Russell ended up fourth in the Mercedes and was ahead of Piastri who was fifth in the sister McLaren as Lawson delivered a solid sixth.
Then came Alonso who was seventh in the Aston Martin as Hadjar was eighth as Leclerc was ninth after his mistake in his final Q3 lap.
Gasly was tenth for Alpine, a great result for the Frenchman.
Las Vegas GP Qualifying Provisional Classification
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