It was chilly in Las Vegas, and the "participants" were greeted by an early rise worldwide, as they were primarily curious to see whether Mercedes would be able to convert the advantage from the third practice session into a pole position.
The first few fast laps of Q1 revolved around McLaren, then George Russell showed his skills and took the lead. As in practice, Scuderia Ferrari also showed strong form, but ultimately Mercedes and Max Verstappen occupied the top three. Those eliminated traditionally included Sergio Perez, Alexander Albon, Valtteri Bottas, and the two Aston Martins.
Q2 unfolded similarly to the first session, with Hamilton, Piastri, and Verstappen in the order, but to exaggerate a bit, virtually everything was up in the air. A Mercedes pole position was looking increasingly likely... Hamilton, Sainz, and Russell were in the order, and just as the session was about to end, it was brought to an early end due to a very serious accident involving Franco Collapinto. Red flags and waiting times followed... Besides Collapinto, Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen, Guanyu Zhou, and Liam Lawson failed to make it into Q3.
After the delayed first laps of Q3, Russell, Sainz, and Verstappen led the field, which was no surprise. It also wasn't really surprising that George Russell secured a clear pole position with the final push. However, Carlos Sainz's second place and Pierre Gasly's fantastic third place definitely belong in that category. In the end, qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix turned into a really good qualifying session, and we hope this form carries over into tomorrow's race!
