Charles Leclerc took the first pole position in Las Vegas. The Ferrari driver secured first place in qualifying ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz. Formula 1 is stopping in the US metropolis for the first time, the race takes place on Sunday (from 7 a.m. German time in the LIVETICKER).
Because Sainz received a grid penalty of ten places after a battery change, world champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull) will start the race in second place, who had an unusually little chance on a fast lap and was four tenths behind. Mercedes driver George Russell starts the Grand Prix in third place.
After three turbulent training sessions at the start of the race weekend, the qualifying took place without any major problems, but there were still surprises in store.
F1 qualifying: debacle for McLaren – Hamilton out too
The two competitors for the runner-up position in the World Championships were eliminated in Q2. Lewis Hamilton was unable to keep up with teammate Russell in the second Mercedes and started the race from tenth place. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Pérez is one place behind.
Perhaps the biggest surprise came from the two McLarens, who had left a good impression in training. For Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris it was already over in Q1.
Nico Hülkenberg ended up in 13th place in the Haas and was beaten by teammate Kevin Magnussen, who made it to Q3 and started the race from eighth place.
Meanwhile, Logan Sargeant put in a convincing performance. The Williams driver, who was recently heavily criticized for causing various accidents, ended up in seventh place. His teammate Alexander Albon came sixth. Because of Sainz’s reassignment, they even moved up one rank.
Las Vegas weekend initially not in the spirit of Formula 1
The qualifying was the first sporting highlight of this premiere on Las Vegas Boulevard, which at the start was not at all in the spirit of Formula 1.
During the first free practice session on Thursday, a drain cover came off and destroyed Sainz’s Ferrari; the session was canceled after just eight minutes and not resumed. This incident resulted in Sainz’s extremely unfortunate punishment because the energy storage unit on his car had to be replaced.
In the second and third training sessions, the drivers only had a short time to get to know the completely new track and make it passable: from lap to lap, the initially slippery asphalt became faster because there was more and more rubber abrasion on the ideal line.
Ferrari and Leclerc confirm strong impressions from training
The ranking was mixed for a long time, the gaps were sometimes large, but a trend was noticeable: Ferrari was fastest.
This continued at the beginning of qualifying, with Leclerc finishing ahead of Sainz in both Q1 and Q2, with big gaps behind him. And in the decisive round he also distanced himself from his teammate by 44 thousandths.
For the first time, Formula 1 is running a Grand Prix this weekend that will take you through the most famous streets of Las Vegas. There had already been two races in the city in the 1980s, but these took place in the parking lot of Caesars Palace.
With Sports Information Service (SID)