It's chilly weather in Vegas, and the "participants" were greeted with an early wake-up call, most interested in whether the advantage shown by Mercedes in free practice could be turned into pole position.
The first few fast laps of Q1 were dominated by McLaren, then George Russell shone and took the lead. As in practice, Scuderia Ferrari showed strong form, but in the end the top three places were taken by Mercedes and Max Verstappen. Among those eliminated were the already traditional Sergio Perez, Alexander Albon, Valtteri Bottas and the two Aston Martins.
Q2 went similarly to the first part, Hamilton, Piastri, Verstappen being the order, but with a little exaggeration, practically anything could have been up in the air. The Mercedes pole was getting closer and closer… Hamilton, Sainz, Russell was the order, and when it seemed that the stage would end, it was necessary to end prematurely due to a very serious accident by Franco Collapinto. A red flag followed and waiting… In addition to Collapinto, Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen, Guanyu Zhou and Liam Lawson failed to reach Q3.
After the first laps of the postponed Q3, Russell, Sainz, Verstappen led the pack, which was no longer a surprise. It was also not really surprising that, at the end of the last attempts, George Russell achieved a clear pole position. However, Carlos Sainz's second place and Pierre Gasly's fantastic third place absolutely fall into this category. In the end, qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix turned into a very good session, let's hope this form will transfer to tomorrow's race!
