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lando norris Said his march to pole position for vegas The Grand Prix was “very stressful” as he ticked another box to win the World Championship by mastering a wet and wild qualifying session in Sin City.
In treacherous conditions on the Strip, Norris suffered defeat max verstappen by 0.323 seconds, while Oscar Piastri – Norris’s nearest title challenger – could only manage fifth.
carlos saenz Williams finished third, one place ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell. Lewis Hamilton’s nightmarish debut season for Ferrari took another disastrous turn after qualifying 20th and last.
Norris leads McLaren team-mate Piastri by 24 points in the standings and leads Verstappen by 49 points, with 83 points to play for in the final three rounds.
With a view to potentially becoming world champion as early as next week in Qatar, he will start here in the best position to extend his title advantage.
Norris had won from pole at the previous two rounds in Mexico and Brazil, and it was another stellar performance from the 26-year-old Englishman as the season reached its climax. He was one second faster than the out-of-sorts Piastri in the second McLaren.
“I took a nap before qualifying and I expected it to be dry and I woke up and saw it was wet,” Norris said.
“I thought: ‘Oh crap, this isn’t going to be right.’ It’s very easy to crash when this happens so it pays to be on pole.
“It was extremely stressful. There’s so much slip that your car breaks as soon as you hit the curb, but it was good enough for P1.
“The pace has been good all weekend. I didn’t expect to be as fast as I was in the wet. It’s going to be an interesting race there with Max. Hopefully we can have a good race.”
Hamilton’s disappointing debut campaign in Red was dealt another blow when he finished the slowest of all 20 drivers.
hamilton George Russell’s pace-setting in Q1 was 3.97 seconds slower than the Mercedes, and 2.3 seconds behind Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc. This marked one of the worst qualifying performances of Hamilton’s 19-season career.
“I couldn’t get the tires on,” Hamilton said in frustration as he headed back to the pits.
The latest chapter of Hamilton’s year of forgetfulness came 11 days after he was told by Ferrari chairman John Elkann to “talk less and concentrate more on his driving”.
Apart from his sprint win at the second round in China, his switch from Mercedes to Ferrari has failed to live up to its blockbuster billing.
At the previous event in Brazil he was eliminated in Q2, and then collided with the back of Franco Colapinto on the first lap, causing damage that forced him to retire.
Hamilton trailed Leclerc by 66 points in the standings, and his confidence here – in conditions he had often mastered – appeared to fail as he failed to register a lap of any significance.
He has been out-qualified by Leclerc 17 times so far this year. The Monegasque will start Saturday’s race from ninth place on another bad day for Ferrari.
When Hamilton, 40, was asked about his overwhelming feeling, he said: “I don’t really have an answer. It obviously feels terrible; it doesn’t feel good. I just have to let it go and try and come back tomorrow.
“I did everything I could in terms of preparation. I felt like after practice we were the fastest, and then you end up qualifying 20th, and this year is definitely the hardest year.
“We have a fast car. But it will be really difficult to come back from last.”