George Russell is on pole position in Las Vegas (Image: Getty)
Lewis Hamilton has claimed he squandered his shot at pole position for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, as his team-mate .
Starting a disappointing 10th on Saturday night in Sin City, Hamilton lamented his errors during each of his flying laps. Meanwhile, ‘s secured second place, with taking an unexpected third for Alpine.
British contender is under pressure to outperform by three points to keep his title hopes alive until Qatar, but he’ll be starting just behind the Dutchman in sixth.
Despite showing impressive pace throughout the weekend, aided by the cooler conditions, Russell achieved his fourth career pole and third this season.
However, Hamilton, still reeling from the Brazilian Grand Prix debacle that nearly led him to an early exit, failed to make his mark.
A mistake at Turn 12 ruined Hamilton’s first run in Q3, forcing him to scrap the lap. On his last attempt, he ran wide and failed to register a competitive time.
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Reflecting on his performance, Hamilton said: “I should have been on pole but I am not. C’est la vie. You live to fight another day. But I didn’t do the job. I didn’t put the laps together. It’s not a stinger. I feel great. The good thing is I have pace.”
Russell outshone his team-mate, managing to harness the full potential of his . The first attempt saw Russell clipping the wall at Turn 5, resulting in a need for a new front wing.
However, undeterred, the English driver – who impressively leads with a 17-5 qualifying advantage this season – composed himself and on his second try, edged past Sainz by a margin of 0.098 seconds.
Crossing the finish line at exactly 11:24pm local time, Russell later disclosed: “I got 45 minutes sleep before qualifying. The body is all over the place. I sleep when I can and I listen to my body.
“I normally try and meditate as opposed to sleeping. I close my eyes and listen to waves crashing against the sea, or do breathing exercises, box-breathing, it relaxes my mind and takes the pressure off. It is challenging working what is an effective night shift so sleeping when I can is working for me.”
Meanwhile, Norris’ hopes for the championship started to dwindle in Interlagos. His quest to unseat Verstappen may well be declared over by Saturday. With Verstappen leading with a comfortable 62-point advantage and only 86 points left up for grabs, he’s set to clinch his fourth consecutive world title should he surpass his rival.
Verstappen led Norris by two-tenths in the qualifying rounds. Acknowledging the situation, Norris admitted: “He’s pretty likely to win the title. I am not expecting anything magical.”
Reflecting on his chances, he sadly noted, “Would I liked to have made it gone a bit further? Sure. But it was lost in the first six races of the year. That’s when Max dominated and got a gap which was too far to pull back.”
In other news, Franco Colapinto is waiting for the green light to race. The Argentine driver, who damaged his Williams car after crashing into a wall during the final moments of Q2, will undergo a medical evaluation before Saturday’s 50-lap race.
This follows a high-speed accident at 130mph that registered an impact of 50G.