Max Verstappen puts himself in a good position to win his fourth world championship title on Sunday in qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The Dutchman in the Red Bull finishes fifth.
His rival Lando Norris in the McLaren starts directly behind him in 6th place. Verstappen, who won the race in the metropolis of millions in Nevada last year, leads the overall standings by 62 points. If the 27-year-old stays ahead of Norris on Sunday, he will surely become world champion again. Norris would have to make up at least three points to still have a small chance of winning the title.
Pole position went to George Russell for the third time this season. The 26-year-old Briton, who celebrated his only win of the season so far at the Austrian GP at the end of June, confirmed the Mercedes team's good practice results. However, team-mate Hamilton made two mistakes in Q3 and had to settle for 10th place. Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc took second and fourth place, with Pierre Gasly in the Alpine surprisingly sandwiched in between.
Zhou Guanyu from Team Sauber started further up the grid in Las Vegas than ever before this year. For only the third time this season, the Chinese driver made it through the first part of qualifying and finished 13th. He had previously achieved this at the Spanish GP (15th on the grid) and in Great Britain (14th on the grid). His team-mate Valtteri Bottas finished 19th.
SDA
