George Russell of Mercedes took pole position for the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Friday while title-chasing Max Verstappen was fifth.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was second ahead of Pierre Gasly of Alpine with Red Bull’s three-time world champion Verstappen finishing one spot ahead of title rival Lando Norris of McLaren who was sixth.
Verstappen, who won the Las Vegas race in 2023, leads Norris by 62 points with three races remaining and needs simply to finish ahead of him on Saturday night to become only the sixth man to win four world championships.
Charles Leclerc, in the second Ferrari, was fourth fastest in qualifying and will share the second row with Gasly whose impressive performance on the Las Vegas street circuit followed a shock third-place finish in Brazil last time out.
Yuki Tsunoda of RB was seventh with Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren, Nico Hulkenberg in a Haas and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes completing the top 10.
Qualifying under the Las vegas lights stretched past its scheduled finish time due to a huge crash suffered by Williams rookie Franco Colapinto.
The Argentine endured a massive impact with the barriers as he pushed hard in the second session.
“Absolutely gutted but we’re thankful Franco is okay,” the team said in a statement.
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