F1 Las Vegas GP live commentary and updates - qualifying
Follow along for Formula 1 qualifying updates from Las Vegas
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STROLL DOES IT AGAIN
1m52.850s for Lance Stroll. STOP THE CLOCK!!!
Piastri's first effort is a 1m54.981s – that's 2.131s off his team-mate and puts him outside the top 10 for now.
Stroll briefly P2 with a lap 0.420s off Norris's time, but Russell deposes him with a 1m53.442s.
Norris goes fastest so far with a 1m53.302s – two seconds faster than his Q1 lap.
Q2 IS GO
The rain has finally abated and a different-coloured racing line is beginning to appear on track. We wouldn't go so far as to describe that line as "dry".
Norris out of the garage and first in the queue for when Q2 starts in two minutes.
Q2 start delayed while the track is cleared of debris and a bollard is replaced at the apex of Turn 14 – replays showing Lewis Hamilton got his line through that corner completely wrong and collected the bollard in question.
Russell went fastest of all in that final flurry of laps. Meanwhile Oliver Bearman will be thanking his lucky starts as he ended up P15.
Squeaky final moments for Lando Norris as he crossed the line after the chequered flag and was unable to do a lap, then became a spectator as others were on a final flier. But he got through in P13.
"Couldn't get the tyres to work" says Hamilton as he aborts that final lap. He is P20 and out!
Albon also eliminated – his front-right corner needs repairing anyway – as are Antonelli, Bortoleto and Tsunoda.
Peril as Hamilton just about crosses the line before the chequered flag and he's currently P20.
Albon in the wall! We didn't see what happened but he's returning to the pitlane with his front wing adjar and front-right wheel akimbo.
Bearman into the barrier at the end of the lap with a minute to go. It's a gentle nudge and he's able to get going again.
Hadjar excracts himself from the bottom five.
Two minutes left and Stroll, Colapinto, Hadjar, Hamilton, Tsunoda is your drop zone.
Verstappen now P1: 1m55.064s
Sainz under investigation (after the session) for rejoining unsafely at Turn 5.
The rain is easing off a bit and the track is gripping up as those full wets displace the surface water, so the times are tumbling. Nervous moments for those at the lower end of the timesheets.
Sainz now gets a time on the board and it's good for P1: 1m55.659s.
We see Leclerc struggling again, trying to get out of the way of faster cars on push laps.
Sainz and Leclerc yet to set a lap, and we can see why in the Ferrari's case – he slithers off into the run-off at the end of The Strip.
Bearman is first to crack the two-minute bracket but Alonso finds more: 1m57.669s.
STOP THE COUNT!
Lance Stroll P1 with a 2m00.067s. Now that'd be a grid. And what a press conference! Guy would get a nosebleed having to talk for more than 30 seconds.
Williams and Ferrari dumping the inters now as Alonso goes fastest of all with a blistering 2m03.249s.
Lando Norris has had an off and said "I can't keep it on the road".
Everyone except the Ferrari and Williams drivers on wets now.
Hulkenberg going blue as well.
Yes, both Alpines pitting for wets and Oliver Bearman joining them.
Bortoleto and Piastri now showing on our data screen as rolling on wets.
AND WE'RE OFF
A rare sighting of the blue-walled full wet Pirellis out in the wild. But only on the Aston Martins so far.
Everybody else leaving the pitlane on intermediates.
Lando Norris instructs his pitwall to "Keep an eye on the Astons, especially the onboards" because he thinks they may need the wets.
In which case this would be a highly unusual session, because in most circumstances if it's wet enough for wets, a red flag is imminent.
"DRAIN-GATE" UPDATE
You may recall that FP2 was red-flagged twice. Firstly because a loose drain cover was suspected. And then secondly when "suspected" was upgraded to "empirically observed, thank you very much". This was fixed overnight.
According to the FIA: "The manhole that prompted the red flag in FP2 was disassembled and further inspected. A specific fault was found with the closure mechanism, and it was possible address this issue overnight. In addition to the work conducted to address the issue identified, the cover of this manhole has been welded to provide further mitigation. All other manhole covers on or close to the racing line were reinspected overnight, and additional welding was applied to a further 14 manhole assemblies."
WET SETUPS AT THE READY
And the rain continues to fall in Las Vegas. Of course, unlike practice, there's no option to stay in the garage and sit it out. The drivers are just going to have to knuckle down and get on with it.
This has the potential to be quite a long session on a circuit which Oliver Bearman described as "gnarly". It'll be all the more so in the wet.
Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
In case you missed it, McLaren had a troubled final practice session in which it lost telemetry and had to pull both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri back to the garage. That meant neither of them managed to set a representative push lap on soft tyres at the end of FP3 so they slumped to the bottom of the timesheets.
WELCOME TO QUALIFYING
It's time for the bewitching hour. And what a tantalising quali session we have in prospect in Las Vegas, where it's currently raining again. Who will prevail? Who will get their just deserts?
An Elvis impersonator in the Paddock during final practice
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images
By: Stuart Codling
