Qualifying got underway on Friday night in Vegas after final practice which saw George Russel top the session from McLaren’s Oscar Piastry with Logan Sargeant 3rd. After Ferrari dominated the timing sheets in the first two practice sessions hopes were high that they could repeat the feat in qualifying.

Q1

Ferrari did just that in Q1 with Leclerc putting in a lap time of 1.33.617, two tenths ahead of his teammate Sainz with Verstappen 5 seconds off in fourth behind Russel. But the real shock was McLaren, who after looking decent in FP2 failed to make Q2 with Norris putting in a lap time only good enough for sixteenth while Piastry could only manage nineteenth. This is a shocking result for the team who have consistently been Redbull’s nearest challenger since Austria  and while they didn’t expect to be as quick this weekend they certainly didn’t expect to have both cars out in Q1. Along with the two McLarens Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu, and Yuki Tsunoda failed to make Q2.

Q2

Times were getting quicker and quicker through Q2 as the track rubbered in meaning that no one was safe. Redbull’s strategy ream might have been a little overconfident as they decided to keep Sergio Perez in the garage while everyone else was on their final flying lap. This plan backfired leading to Sergio Perez failing to make Q3 for what feels like the 100th time this season. Perhaps a bigger shock was Lewis Hamilton who also went out in Q2 as he failed to set a lap good enough to get into Q3. One of the drivers who beat him was America’s own Logan Sargeant who made it both Williams in Q3 for the second time this season. Haas driver Kevin Magnussen also managed to make it into Q3 while his teammate Hulkenberg failed to make it, along with Stroll, Riccardo, Hamilton and Perez. The Ferrari dominance continued with Leclerc and Sainz 1-2 by the end of the session.

Q3

Williams looked good in Q3 with Albon Qualifying 6th and teammate Sargeant 2 tenths behind as Albon continues to outqualify his teammate at every race so far this year. Elsewhere Pierre Gasly qualified an impressive P5 behind George Russel’s Mercedes. However the big story was  Charles Leclerc taking pole position 0.044 seconds ahead of his teammate Sainz who still looked frustrated about his penalty yesterday  during the post qualifying interviews.

Qualifying timesheets :

Driver	Team	Time
1. Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:32.726
2. Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+0.044
3. Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+0.378
4. George Russell	Mercedes	+0.386
5. Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+0.513
6. Alex Albon	Williams	+0.597
7. Logan Sargeant	Williams	+0.787
8. Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	+0.799
9. Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+0.811
10. Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+0.829
Out in Q2
11. Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:33.837
12. Sergio Perez	Red Bull	1:33.855
13. Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	1:33.979
14. Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:34.199
15. Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri	1:34.308
Out in Q1
16. Lando Norris	McLaren	1:34.703
17. Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:34.834
18. Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	1:34.849
19. Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:34.850
20. Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1:36.447

It will surely be an exiting race tomorrow, so stay tuned for updates on the grand prix as well as the F3 Macau grand prix this weekend.