F1 2025: Las Vegas Grand Prix Qualifying Recap: Lando Norris rides his luck to a pole position on a wet Vegas track

McLaren’s Lando Norris continued to tighten his grip on the Formula One 2025 driver’s title as the British driver took pole position in wet conditions at Las Vegas. Norris’ teammate and championship contender Oscar Piastri’s luck continued to evade him as the Australian could manage only P5 while Max Verstappen starts on the front row with Norris. 

For Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton, their horrid season continued as Hamilton finished bottom last, a first in his illustrious career as the seven-time world champion starts P20 despite not facing any mechanical issues. 

If you missed the qualifying action in Las Vegas, here’s a quick recap.

Q1 – Hamilton’s nightmares continues as Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull lose one driver

Lance Stroll’s early time of 2:00.067s set the benchmark on a wet track before Ollie Bearman and Pierre Gasly went under the 2 minute barrier. Fernando Alonso’s 1:57.669s saw him go quickest with Mercedes’ George Russell being 0.182s behind him. Haas’ Esetban Ocon went quickest for a short time with a time of 1:57.124s while championship leader Lando Norris was more than half a second slower than Ocon.

With the track slowly drying up, the front runners got their times set and Verstappen went quickest late in the session with a 1:55.064s. As the clock slowly ticked off, Ollie Bearman had a moment, hitting the barriers to bring out the Yellow Flag with Alex Albon hitting the wall as well, which ended his session. Albon, Kimi Antonelli, Gabriel Bortoleto and Yuki Tsunoda missed out with Lewis Hamilton, who struggled throughout the Q1 session and finished plum last.

Drivers eliminated in Q1:

Alex Albon
Kimi Antonelli
Gabriel Bortoleto
Yuki Tsunoda
Lewis Hamilton

Q2 – Aston Martin shoot themselves in the foot

Lando Norris’ 1:53.302s set the early benchmark for the second qualifying session on a track that was still a bit wet. Lance Stroll went almost half a second quicker than Norris to go quickest after his first run before Verstappen’s 1:52.693s saw him go P1 momentarily before Oscar Piastri went 0.013s quicker than Verstappen. The times kept on dropping as the track got dryer and it was Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll becoming the first and only one to make the switch from the wet compound tyre to the intermediates. 

Stroll’s move, though, didn’t pay off as the Aston Martin driver was unable to make the Q3 shootout with Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Ollie Bearman and Franco Colapinto being the other drivers who were also eliminated in Q2.

Drivers eliminated in Q2:

Nico Hülkenberg
Lance Stroll
Esteban Ocon
Ollie Bearman
Franco Colapinto

Q3 – Norris capitalises as Piastri fumbles again

With the rain having stopped, Q3 got going with all the drivers on the intermediates. Williams’ Carlos Sainz was once again at the top of the timesheets with a 1:50.880s, a good second clear of Charles Leclerc and Piastri. Piastri went quickest with a 1:49.136s breaking into the 1:40s for the first time in the session, with his second run. 

With two minutes to go, Norris went quickest with a 1:48.384s to take provisional pole and make it a McLaren 1-2 at the top. An eventful end to the session saw Verstappen, Sainz both go fastest and dislodge each other from the top spot before Norris stole pole position with a 1:47.934s, 0.323s quicker than Verstappen. Piastri was caught by a late yellow flag that saw him manage P5. Sainz finished a strong third for Williams but the Spaniard will head to the Stewards post qualifying to discuss about a potential penalty for impeding Lance Stroll in Q1 which could drop him down the grid post a penalty.

Starting grid for the Las Vegas Grand Prix 2025 (before penalties applied):

1. Lando Norris
2. Max Verstappen
3. Carlos Sainz
4. George Russell
5. Oscar Piastri
6. Liam Lawson
7. Fernando Alonso
8. Isack Hadjar 
9. Charles Leclerc
10. Pierre Gasly
11. Nico Hülkenberg
12. Lance Stroll
13. Esteban Ocon
14. Ollie Bearman
15. Franco Colapinto
16. Alex Albon
17. Kimi Antonelli
18. Gabriel Bortoleto
19. Yuki Tsunoda
20. Lewis Hamilton