George Russell Wins Pole At F1 GP Las Vegas, Verstappen And Hamilton Outside Top Five

JAKARTA - George Russell will start the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix Formula 1 (F1) from pole position.

Max Verstappen could only secure fifth place in the qualifying session. Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton was thrown into 10th position.

Hamilton made the mistake in both rounds of Third Qualification (Q3). The result is even more painful for the seven-time world champion, who will leave Mercedes to join Ferrari at the end of the season.

Russell of Mercedes beat Ferrari's Carlos Sainz by a margin of 0.098 seconds in qualifying.

"It's amazing being able to get back to pole position. We were so fast all weekend. I knew into the last Q3 round that it would be the most important thing, no matter what happened before."

"I had a bit of a problem in the first round. We had to replace the front wing so for a moment I thought we weren't going to finish line, but I was very happy."

"We have to dive deeper to understand why it happened so fast so far this weekend because it's really a surprise," said Russell.

Pierre Gasly surprisingly took third place on the grid for Alpine. He was 0.352 seconds away from Russell.

"Honestly, it was amazing, we didn't expect to reach the top three positions in qualifying."

"It was an incredible lap, especially on this track, when you face a wall everywhere during the round and there's a lot of adrenaline and joy."

"I knew crossing the finish line was a good lap, but when they told me on the radio that I would be in third place tomorrow, it was really amazing and I was very happy," Pierre Gasly said at ESPN.

Meanwhile, Verstappen qualified in fifth place, right behind Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).

However, he will start a position ahead of Norris, Verstappen's competitor in the race for the 2024 F1 world title. Verstappen is currently 62 points ahead of Norris in the drivers' standings.

Verstappen has won the world champion this season or fourth in a row if he wins at the Las Vegas GP which will be held on Sunday, November 24, 2024, Indonesian Western Time (WIB) afternoon.

Shifting to the constructors' standings, McLaren-Mercedes are currently at the top with 593 points, 36 points ahead of Ferrari in second place.

The problem is, the qualification results are quite worrying about McLaren-Mercedes winning the constructors' title considering the two Ferrari riders started the race ahead of Norris and his team-mate Oscar Piastri, who are in eighth position.