The Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) won the pole of the F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas with an advantage of 44 thousandths over his teammate, the Spaniard Carlos Sainz, who will however not be able to be at his side on the starting grid of the Sunday race. since he receives a penalty of ten positions after the incident he suffered on Friday with a manhole cover on the circuit.

“I’m still angry,” said Sainz after qualifying, who saw how, for a reason beyond his control and the fault of his team, and the fault of the organization – Formula 1 itself – all his chances of fighting for victory in Las Vegas were reduced to nothing. ruined.Las Vegas.

During the first free practice session of the Grand Prix, he fell on a sewer and the cover broke part of his car, which forced him to change the battery and penalize ten positions, even though the stewards athletes themselves admitted that this was due to an external agent.

Sainz demonstrated this Saturday during qualifying that he has the speed to fight first for pole and on Sunday for his second victory of the year – the only non-Red Bull driver to reach the top step of the podium this season.

The Spaniard finished 44 thousandths behind his teammate Charles Leclerc, who dominated the three training sessions with a Ferrari which only has to confirm its speed in the race, where the points are distributed.

Behind, due to the sanction imposed on Sainz which will make him start in twelfth place, is the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull).

The current world champion, and triple champion, was far from being able to fight for pole and finished 378 thousandths behind Leclerc.

Behind, the Briton George Russell (Mercedes) followed by the surprise of the day, the two Williams, the Thai Alexander Albon and the American Logan Sargeant.

To find the other Spanish driver on the grid, you have to go down to tenth place, although he will start ninth due to the suspension of his compatriot Sainz.

A Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) who did not improve on new tires in his first attempt, with used tires, in Q3 and who went from fourth place to being overtaken by all his rivals on the last lap qualifying.

Pérez and Hamilton, out of the fight for pole

Q3 was missing three of the top five drivers’ championship finishers. Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), second; the Briton Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), third; and his compatriot Lando Norris (McLaren), fifth.

The Guadalajara driver, due to the team’s strategy, did not ride on the track until the end and this ended up taking its toll on him, leaving him 46 thousandths from tenth position.

For his part, Hamilton finished eleventh and got angry on the radio when he sent a message to the team in which he recognized that he could not do more on his lap to overtake Valtteti Bottas (Alfa Romeo) which exceeded it by 28 thousandths.

McLaren is playing it without luck

Both McLaren cars, Briton Lando Norris and Australian Oscar Piastri, were excluded from the second qualifying session (Q2) and will start 15th and 18th respectively, having gained one position each due to the previous five-place penalty in the Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), during Sunday’s race after playing with the choice of tires.

McLaren decided not to use new soft tires, as their direct competitors did, thinking they could reserve it for Q2 and Q3, but this was not the case and they did not sufficiently improve their times with it. used tires.

Norris, second in Brazil and main alternative to Verstappen’s ultimately incontestable domination, from the back of the grid in Las Vegas.

A Q1 in which there were tensions between Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Verstappen, with insults on the radio included after the Dutchman overtook the Frenchman in turn 1 a few minutes from the end of the session . One more chapter in a relationship that had broken down since they competed in karting and even came to blows during the 2018 Brazilian GP, ​​with Max pushing Ocon after the race. EFE