The rain was coming down pretty good throughout most of Q1. Most of the drivers started on intermediate tires except for the Aston Martins, the Saubers, and Oscar Piastri.

Throughout the whole session there were all kinds of drivers going off track and into the runoff zones, causing the yellow flag warning to be flashing in and out pretty consistently. They were being affected not only by the water on track, but also from the spray if there is a car in front of them.

The intermediate tires aren’t working well, there is too much water on track, all drivers were out on wet tires by 10:30 left in Q1.

Many drivers were getting track timed deleted due to exceeding track limits. Leclerc, Tsunoda, Sainz, and Antonelli were all victims of track limits. Leclerc was struggling at 6:04 left; he still had no time set and was sliding all over the place. At one point he had bad oversteer, causing the car to stall. Sainz was also having issues; he is being investigated after the session for rejoining the track unsafely

By 4 minutes left the rain started easing up in some parts of the track, particularly in the pit lane, but not so much in other areas. The track was definitely not drying up any time soon.

With less than a minute left in the session rookie Oliver Bearman goes straight into the barriers at turn 14, but is able to pull the car out. It seemed that the damage only occurred on the front wing. Right after that, Alex Albon clips the wall, but is able to get across and into the pit lane safely. Both of these drivers will seem themselves out of Q1

Some confusion happened with Lewis Hamilton, who crossed the line in the nick of time to start a flying lap, but he aborted the lap. In the live stream it looked like he hit a cone and it may have got caught under the car, but in his post race interview he said that he didn’t think he has made it to the chequered flag and his race engineer didn’t communicate with him.

The end of Q1 saw George Russell topping the chart and Albon, Antonelli, Bortoleto, Tsunoda, and Hamilton out.

Lando Norris is first in line at the end of the pit lane with 3 minutes until the start of the session. Everyone was on wet tires again, but conditions seemed to be lightening up. The track was still very wet despite it not raining anymore.

Norris set the first time with a 1:53.302. Verstappen had a pretty big wobble, but that didn’t stop him from going quickest. Liam Lawson had an impressive lap and managed to go quickest by half a second with 6 minutes left in Q2

Aston Martin takes a gamble with Lance Stroll by putting intermediates on him. It doesn’t work out very well for him though. The tires didn’t have enough time to warm up to put in a competitive lap.

Still a lot of yellow flags, though not as bad and in Q1. Turn 14 is a problem area though with a wet patch that is causing drivers to lockup.

Verstappen brought us into the 1:51 going half a second clear of Isack Hadjar who was previously P1.

At the end of the session we saw George Russell topping the chart once again. The bottom five were Hulkenberg, Stroll, Ocon, Bearman, and Colapinto.

Leclerc lines up first with everyone else out behind him except George Russell. Everyone starts this session on the intermediate tires and a dry line starts to form on track, helping the drives.

Leclerc sets the first time and Hadjar goes 7 tenths up almost immediately after. Not long after that Carlos Sainz went 4 tenths up with a 1:50.880.

Norris brought us into the 1:49s, with Piastri setting a 1:49.136 not long after Norris. Norris then one upped Piastri, setting a 1:48.384 with about a minute left.

Sainz took provisional pole, but Verstappen took it by just 3 hundredths of a second. Norris was setting multiple purple sectors and took pole with a 1:47.934. There was a yellow flag that affected some drivers' laps, including Piastri. 

The session ends with Norris P1, Verstappen P2, and Sainz P3. Watch Saturday night to see who takes the win in Las Vegas!