Leclerc claims pole for the Las Vegas Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc claimed pole for the Las Vegas Grand Prix ahead of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen.

Leclerc's improved his best lap to a 1:32.726 on his final attempt, which was 0.044s faster than Sainz.

George Russell will start from P4 after a late effort, ahead of Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon.

Both Williams drivers will start inside the top ten, with Logan Sargent starting from seventh for his home race.

Fernando Alonso was provisionally fourth on the grid, but failed to improve in the final moments with the evolving track and dropped down to 10th.

Shock drop outs

Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez were the shock drop outs in Q2, with the latter exiting in Q2 for the third time in seven races.

Perez had produced a 1:33.855 and pitted to save tyres, but it turned out to be a poor strategy as others improved including the Williams drivers along with Pierre Gasly and Kevin Magnussen.

Hamilton meanwhile said that he could not extract any more pace from this car, with the lap he did just 0.028s off getting into Q3.

They were joined by Nico Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll, and Daniel Ricciardo.

Norris and Piastri eliminated

Both McLaren's were eliminated after ill-timed laps on the evolving track.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will start the race from P16 and P19, the former having elected not to run any new sets of tyres after their initial runs.

Yuki Tsunoda will also start from P20 after making a mistake at Turn 5 on his lap.