Charles Leclerc stormed to pole position in Formula 1’s return to Las Vegas after a four decade absence from the calendar.
After maintaining a firm grip on proceedings throughout the weekend, Leclerc’s time of 1:32.726s saw him edge team-mate Carlos Sainz to top honours. However, Sainz will take a 10-place grid penalty for Saturday’s race, promoting Max Verstappen to the front row.
Read more: F1 2023 Las Vegas GP – Qualifying Results
Despite fears of near-freezing temperatures for the inaugural race on the Las Vegas street circuit, the ambient temperature sat at 15 degrees Celsius ahead of qualifying.
Tyre warm up and track evolution would both be major factors during the session which saw several shock eliminations in the highly anticipated midnight qualifying slot.
The Ferraris looked imperious under the lights in Las Vegas from the get go, and that looked to be the case once more when Q1 got underway.
Times would drop continuously as the track rubbered up, with Leclerc finding a seven-tenth advantage over his team-mate having gotten his eye in at the half-way stage in Q1.
While Q1 was a comfortable affair for the Scuderia, the same couldn’t be said for McLaren as both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri found themselves on slow laps when the chequered flag fell.
Norris was the first of the five eliminated after being pushed into the elimination zone after a late improvement from Lance Stroll. Piastri, meanwhile, could only manage 19th.
After picking up a five-place grid penalty for overtaking Sainz under yellow flags in FP3, the Canadian attracted the Stewards’ attention again for failing to slow under yellow flags at the end of Q1.
Esteban Ocon was 17th fastest, but found himself involved in a moment with Max Verstappen at Turn 1 as the pair battled for the same piece of tarmac ahead at the beginning of their final laps, making contact. Guanyu Zhou and Yuki Tsunoda were also eliminated.
After failing to set representative lap-times in the early stages of Q2, Mercedes found itself in control with six minutes to go as Lewis Hamilton appeared P1 ahead of George Russell.
However, issues finding tyre temperature during his final attempt saw Hamilton become a shock elimination in Q2 as, once again, the Ferraris opened up a huge advantage on fresh rubber.
With two minutes remaining in Q2, Perez pulled into the pits and was wheeled into the garage. The Mexican was P6, one second slower than Leclerc at the time, and only four-tenths clear of then P11 Albon.
The call proved costly as track evolution remained pertinent and the Red Bull driver joined Hamilton as a shock elimination in Q2, 12th fastest.
Nico Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo were also eliminated at the end of Q2.
Leclerc continued to look on rails in Q3 as he again vaulted to the top of the timing sheets after the first run. The Monegasque had set the benchmark at a 1:33.021s on his first effort, with Sainz and Verstappen both within a tenth.
As temperatures continued to cool, the track looked to fall away from drivers despite the rapid ramp-up that had been evidenced earlier in the night.
Drivers struggled to find the heat in their tyres but Leclerc would still improve to a 1:32.726s and was able to fend off team-mate Sainz by 0.044s as the chequered flag fell to claim a 23rd career pole.
Sainz was only bettered by his team-mate, but will take a 10-place grid penalty on Saturday after exceeding his energy store allowance for the season as a result of the
Verstappen had left his run late and was ultimately unable to find the required improvement to disrupt Leclerc’s night and aborted his final lap. The three-time champion will start from P2 after the application of Sainz’s penalty.
George Russell will head the second row after qualifying in P4 ahead of Pierre Gasly who managed an impressive fifth for Alpine.
It was double delight for Williams after seeing both cars advance to Q3. Albon found himself 0.597s off the pace of Leclerc, but will be buoyed by the Williams’ straight-line prowess during the race. Logan Sargeant was a further two-tenths behind.
Valtteri Bottas followed in eighth, ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Fernando Alonso who had been the first to set a final time in Q3.
