Charles Leclerc dominated a qualifying session with several surprises at the Las Vegas GP and secured pole position in the penultimate round of the Formula 1 season. Ferrari was the strongest team this Saturday and placed Carlos Sainz in second, but the Spaniard was penalized for changing components of the power unit and will not be able to contribute to a fully «Rossa» front row.
Qualifying summary
Since Q1, it was clear that Ferrari was superior in Las Vegas. Leclerc led by 0.234s ahead of Sainz, with George Russell (Mercedes) in third, more than half a second behind. The negative surprise was McLaren – which was immediately eliminated.
A late improvement from Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) left Lando Norris (McLaren) out, as he was relegated to 16th place. The British driver was only 20 milliseconds behind the last qualifier, Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri). In a disastrous qualifying session for McLaren, Oscar Piastri also failed to advance, finishing in 19th place.
Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) were also eliminated, finishing in 17th, 18th, and 20th respectively. In a rare situation, Williams placed both drivers in Q2.
The Ferrari dominance continued in Q2, once again with Leclerc ahead of Sainz… this time by a clear 0.563s. Russell was again in third place. The big surprise this time was the eliminations of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Sergio Pérez (Red Bull).
Unlike his teammate Russell, Hamilton had some difficulties in being fast and failed to qualify for Q3, finishing in 11th place, 0.028s behind Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo). As for Pérez, in a GP where Red Bull is not particularly competitive, he finished in 12th place, 0.046s behind the top ten.
Eliminated were also Nico Hülkenberg (Haas), Stroll, and Ricciardo, in 13th, 14th, and 15th place respectively.
Chegó a la Q3 y, con su primer intento, Leclerc se puso al frente, con Sainz y Max Verstappen (Red Bull) siguiéndole de cerca. Pero las decisiones solo se tomaron en los últimos instantes.
En una pista fría, Leclerc solo dio una vuelta de calentamiento de neumáticos, pero aún así logró el mejor tiempo: 1m32,726s. Por su parte, Sainz optó por dar dos vueltas de calentamiento de neumáticos… una estrategia que resultó efectiva, valiéndole el segundo lugar a 0,044s, que será el 12º en la parrilla de salida debido a una penalización de diez posiciones.
El campeón Verstappen terminó siendo el principal oponente de Ferrari, quedando en tercer lugar a 0,378s de Leclerc. Russell concluyó con el cuarto mejor tiempo, y Pierre Gasly (Alpine) fue quinto.
Williams destacó, con Alexander Albon en sexto lugar y Logan Sargeant logrando su mejor clasificación en el séptimo puesto, que será sexto en la parrilla debido a la penalización de Sainz. Completando el grupo de los diez más rápidos, en ese orden, quedaron Bottas, Kevin Magnussen (Haas) y Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin).
Resultados:
