Norris: There are a lot of unknowns tomorrow

Heavy rain threw a spanner in the works for the teams and drivers throughout Qualifying at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Many competitors drifted around the street circuit and Alexander Albon of Williams damaged his front suspension in the barriers in the final sector.

McLaren were perhaps most concerned of all as the dominant package heading into the weekend. A wet track would bunch up the field, and pole position became far from guaranteed for the Woking-based outfit.

Nevertheless, Norris put all of those doubts to one side on his final Q3 run, acing the first two sectors and being almost a full second faster than the provisional pole time at that point.

A big snap of oversteer through the final few corners almost cost the Briton dearly, but he had enough of an advantage to take P1 by over three tenths of a second.

Speaking immediately after the chaotic session, Norris admitted that he was surprised at the rain that passed over Las Vegas before and during Qualifying.

He said: "I was having a little nap before Qualifying. I expected it to be dry but I woke up and saw it was raining and though 'oh c*** this is not going to go well'

"No one has driven around here in the rain before, so it was difficult to know what to expect.

"After Q1, every corner you felt you could crash and it could easily be over! More rewarding a day like this because it was a tricky one," stated the McLaren driver.

Despite claiming pole by a comfortable margin, Norris is not entirely confident that he will dominate proceeding during the race on Sunday.

He continued: "The pace has been good all weekend. I think it was going to be good in the dry, I didn't expect to be as good as I was then in the wet.

"There are a lot of unknowns tomorrow. No one has done much high fuel running. It will be an interesting race, especially with Max up there. Hopefully we can have a good race tomorrow," concluded the 26-year-old.

Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri was caught out by Yellow flags on his final flying lap, and thus could only muster a lowly P5 in Qualifying.

With the Drivers' Championship slipping away from the Australian each and every round, he will have to make up several positions and challenge Norris for the win on Sunday.

He said: "What I can say is there was more out there we didn’t get to use.

"I think we’ve got a good car underneath us. It seems to be working well in all kinds of conditions.

"I think we can have a strong race and hopefully make up some spots," stated Piastri.

The Las Vegas Grand Prix will commence Sunday 23 November at 04:00 GMT (Saturday 22 November at 20:00 local time).