F1 Grand Prix, GP Las Vegas, Las Vegas Street Circuit

Lando Norris will start tomorrow night’s Las Vegas Grand Prix from pole position, having been fastest in a thrilling qualifying session run entirely in the wet, his best Q3 time being a 1’47”934.

McLaren

“P1! Very pleased with the result from Quali today. Pole in such tricky conditions was definitely not easy, but that makes the result even better. We certainly weren't expecting this coming into the weekend, but we've definitely taken a step forward from last year and the confidence has been building as the weekend has gone on. Full focus now turns to the race and delivering another strong performance.”

"Tough end to the session with the Yellow Flag on the final lap. I felt like we had really good pace, so it's disappointing, but at least we can say we were fast. There should be a few overtaking opportunities tomorrow and it's Vegas, so anything can happen. Let's see what we can do."

Red Bull

”I think we executed Qualifying quite well today. The conditions weren’t fun, it was really slippery on the track and it felt like driving on ice. I love driving in the wet but this was too much and you had to be super careful. It was very low grip and you had to be consistent and make no mistakes, but you just trust your instinct and feeling within the car and need to trust what you are doing.

"Despite this, we maximised the potential of the car and we did everything as best we could, so that was all positive. Q1 and Q2 is always tricky to get right but we did well and in Q3 I think we just lacked a bit of grip to fight further up and we weren’t in contention for Pole. Second is good and the focus is, of course, on tomorrow and it will be about who can keep the tyres alive, which we haven’t been the best at.

"We will see how we perform on the Hard compound as we have no information on it yet. The biggest concern is making sure we have the race pace: it will be difficult but if we have the opportunity we will go for it."

”I just didn’t have any grip throughout the session, it felt like complete ice underneath me and I was wheel spinning. I knew it was weird, and I wasn’t sure what had happened with the tyre set but it felt very strange. Last time I used the extreme tyre it didn’t feel like that and I was super quick, this time I was three seconds off everyone else, so I didn’t understand.

"Clearly something wasn’t right and wasn’t working properly, I could feel that. Now I know my pressures were way off where they should have been, which explains the issues I had throughout Q1, but I did whatever I could in the circumstances.

"It’s tough and it’s a shame because up until Quali we have had amazing pace all weekend, probably the best pace I have had since joining the Team. I have to try tomorrow to get something out of the race."

Williams

"A frustrating qualifying result as we have been quick all weekend. The conditions were tricky out there and I was experiencing some random aquaplaning across different laps. The laps I was able to do in clean air I was happy with, but unfortunately, we never really got a clean lap without a yellow flag.

"There was a lot going on through the last few corners with various flags and to get to the line on time, and I had a snap and we ultimately got caught out. It is frustrating as we should’ve been in Q3 today as well. Hopefully it is dry tomorrow, but I’m confident that we have a good car and can fight back in the race."

"Very happy after one of the trickiest qualifying’s of the year! From my first lap today, I’ve felt at home with the car. Every time I was closing in on my lap we were at the top of the field and I was enjoying myself out there in these conditions.

"Despite opening my last attempt a bit early, I knew I had a shot at pole and for a moment I thought I had it! But two very quick cars behind me were able to improve and edge us out. Still, P3 is an amazing result for the team and we have to feel proud of the job done.

"Our target for tomorrow will be to remain in position, whilst being conscious we have some very quick cars behind us and it’s easy to overtake here. We’ll make ourselves as wide as possible and give it our all. Vamos!"

Mercedes

"Unfortunately I suffered a power steering issue midway through Q3 and that cost us a shot at the front row. Looking at the pace of Lando (Norris) in the McLaren, I’m not convinced that we had the pace to match him and take pole, but we could definitely have been best of the rest. That is particularly true as we had been fastest in Q1 and Q2, so we had good speed in the car.

"Starting P4 isn’t the ideal place to be lining up but we’ve seen in the first two editions of the race here that plenty can happen. I think we can fight with those ahead and be in the mix for the podium. The weather is expected to be dry tomorrow and warmer than we’ve seen over Thursday and Friday. That will definitely have an effect and adds another unknown to what is likely to be an intriguing Grand Prix."

"That was a tough qualifying session. It was incredibly tricky for everyone out there with very little grip. The circuit was improving lap-by-lap and it was crucial to just keep pushing to maintain temperature in the tyres. My last lap of Q1 was looking strong but I locked up at the end of the straight and that was my session done. It is a big shame as our pace has been good all weekend and we could have been fighting at the front.

"Whilst it puts us on the back foot for Saturday’s race, we looked to have good pace in practice on Thursday. Hopefully we can put that to use and gain as many positions as possible. We’re in a tight battle for P2 in the Constructors’ and several of our competitors are also out of position. I’m still confident we can fight for decent points and that is certainly going to be our aim."

Racing Bulls

"I think in today’s Qualifying we did everything perfectly in terms of timings and outings. I felt comfortable straight away in the wet from Q1 and was able to bring the performance into Q2. It’s just very frustrating finishing P8 as my last attempt in Q3 was fast.

"I think I was the last driver on track starting the lap and the track evolution was simply at its peak, but unfortunately the yellow flag came out and it didn't work in our favour. I don’t know what to expect tomorrow race-pace wise as we haven’t done any long runs in the practices', so we'll need to use previous data to build our strategy and race to get those important points!”

"It was a wild Qualifying session today but I'm very happy with P6. For us to be using an extreme tyre throughout two of the sessions shows just how slippery it was, as we rarely use this tyre. The car has been really fast, but we still missed the last lap by a small margin. I think we had more speed in the car and the opportunity to be higher up, however to have both cars in Q3 is a great result.”

Aston Martin

"I think P7 was unthinkable two hours ago and it was more fun than what I thought it was going to be out there tonight. I thought we could be in for a very long evening with a lot of red flags, but I'm happy with P7 in the end. The team did a good job to make sure we were on the right tyres and we maximised the session. The wet conditions have helped our performance, so let's see what we can do tomorrow."

"We were leading in Q1 and at the beginning of Q2 for some time and then made a collective decision to go on Intermediates. We thought it was going to be dry enough and we tried it but it wasn't the right call. We planned for three push laps but could only do two in the end and missed an opportunity. It's a shame because I think we could've fought for a strong result today."

Ferrari

"It was a really tricky qualifying today, with low grip on the wet track. Our car struggles in these conditions and it’s really difficult to find a way to maintain a large enough window of good grip to fight with our rivals. It’s frustrating, but we will continue doing everything we can to find a solution.

"The race should be dry tomorrow, so the conditions will be different again. We had quite a high downforce setup for today, so this could impact our straight-line speed in the race. We will make the most of it and I hope we can have a good start and move forward during the race."

"That was a really disappointing qualifying session. After FP3 I felt we had good pace in the car, but the wet conditions didn’t work in our favour today. Visibility was poor and we were unfortunate to be hampered by a few yellow flags, which meant I couldn’t put a proper lap together in my last three attempts. We’ll regroup tonight and aim to move back into the points tomorrow."

Alpine

“That was such an enjoyable Qualifying session and it is another Q3 appearance for us, which I am very pleased with. The conditions were extremely tough, one of the hardest I've ever experienced in Formula One, with the rain and cold temperatures. We seemed to be fast in the wet straight away and we were up there lap after lap right from Q1.

"We were competitive on the Extreme Wets but in Q3, on the Intermediates, we seemed to struggle to bring the tyres up to temperature, so we have some things to review there.

"Tomorrow we are going into the unknown a little bit after limited high fuel running in Practice yesterday. That will make things interesting and we will give it our all to be in the points and hopefully put right what has happened over the last two years for me at this track.”

“Since yesterday we made a lot of improvements, and I felt like we were in the mix in those conditions. I think if it wasn't for the moment I had on my final push lap, we could have been close to getting into Q3. I was on a pretty good lap, up on my delta time, until I touched the kerb and lost the car at Turn 15.

"I had a massive slide and almost lost the car and managed to keep it out the wall thankfully, but I lost a lot of time. I think we were improving a lot, it was just tricky conditions out there. The amount of rain and standing water was a lot, but the grip with the asphalt and white lines, which you couldn't really touch, meant it maybe felt worse.

"But it was the same for everyone out there. Hopefully it remains dry tomorrow, and we can improve on our position and race towards the points.”

Kick Sauber

“It was one of the most challenging qualifying sessions I’ve experienced - especially in Q1, with some incredibly low grip conditions. Vegas is already tricky by itself, with its low-downforce setup and slippery tarmac, and once the rain came, it became even more unpredictable.

“I think we managed the session well overall, but Q3 just slipped through our fingers at the very end. I had an issue in the last corner on my final lap and lost some time, which was frustrating because it would’ve been close. Still, no major mistakes, and we kept it clean - that was important today.”

“I was actually feeling quite comfortable at the beginning of the session, and the pace felt good, but in those last two or three laps it kind of slipped away from me. This was effectively my first qualifying session fully in the wet: visibility was really tough, everything felt pretty intense and I struggled with grip.

"We will need to analyse the reason why everything fell off as Q1 progressed, because I just couldn’t extract what I felt I could in those final laps. Tomorrow won't be an easy job, starting towards the back, but we’ll aim to make the most of every chance in the race.”

Haas

“I don’t think we really made the most out of it, which is clearly disappointing as we had much more pace. I had to back off in the penultimate lap, and when I went to push again, I lost tyre temperature and locked up going into Turn 1.

"I didn’t improve in my last two laps, but we clearly had Q3 pace which is disappointing, but it’s positive as the conditions out there were very hard and we showed we’re still there. We’ve been struggling lately, but that session still felt good, and although we didn’t get the maximum out of it, we still looked very competitive.”

“It was nice to get into Q2 as I made a mistake in Q1, but I got away with it because I had a good lap on the board from earlier on. For me, the fact that we were so far off in Q2 can be only down to one thing, which is the tyres. I did every lap pushing, and in Q1 that was working well as it was a much wetter track, and every degree was helping.

"In Q2, I think it got to the point where the tyres started to overheat a bit. I’m disappointed over our qualifying as there was more to get out there, but I’m still excited for the race as there’s every possibility for a good result tomorrow.”