LAS VEGAS: Lando Norris’ attempt to rewrite his personal history at the Las Vegas Grand Prix couldn’t have started any better.
McLaren’s championship front-runner will start the Saturday race from the front of the grid after clinching first place with a timely final lap at the conclusion of the third and final stage of a rainy qualifying session on Friday.
Norris eclipsed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.323, depriving the reigning four-time champion of what would have been his eighth pole of the season.
“It was pretty nasty,” Norris said of the conditions. “It was so slippery. The amount of wheel spin in certain places was difficult. It was difficult to lock the tires. Everything was pretty tough, so I’m even more satisfied with the end result because of how tricky everything was out there today.”
Friday marked the first wet qualifying session since the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix last November, where Norris also claimed pole position for that weekend’s Grand Prix.
Norris, 26, can move within proverbial inches of his first World Drivers’ Championship with a win — or even a positive result — on Saturday. Norris previously struggled at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, retiring after a scary crash in 2023 before registering a disappointing sixth-place finish in 2024.
Williams’ Carlos Sainz, who qualified in second at Las Vegas in 2023 and 2024, will start third on the grid on Sunday after notching another impressive performance on the Strip. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who is second in the championship standings, qualified fifth after going off the track on his final lap.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, typically a star in the rain, will start Saturday’s race dead last after being eliminated with a P20 finish in the first qualifying session. Hamilton aborted his final lap after a miscommunication with his team about whether his time was safe before he began the last-second attempt. In his 19th Formula 1 season, it was the first Q1 elimination on pure pace in Hamilton’s career.
“I had a yellow flag in the last corner and then going into turn 17, there was a yellow flag, so I had to lift, came across the line and it was red,” Hamilton said. “But I didn’t have the grip anyway, so I don’t think it would have made much difference.”
Lando Norris, eyeing F1 championship, earns Las Vegas pole
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Lando Norris, eyeing F1 championship, earns Las Vegas pole
- McLaren’s championship front-runner will start the Saturday race from the front of the grid
- Norris, 26, can move within proverbial inches of his first World Drivers’ Championship with a win — or even a positive result
Morocco part company with coach Regragui as World Cup looms
RABAT: Morocco parted company with coach Walid Regragui on Thursday, three months before the World Cup, with the country’s football federation naming Mohamed Ouahbi as his replacement.
Regragui leaves despite having led the Atlas Lions to the World Cup semifinals in 2022 and to the final of the Africa Cup of Nations at the beginning of this year.
“I leave my post with loyalty, gratitude, and the certainty that I have served my country,” he declared during a ceremony broadcast live on television, confirming weeks of persistent rumors that he was on his way out.
Ouahbi, 49, is promoted to the role having overseen Morocco’s triumph at the Under-20 World Cup in October, with the federation describing the move as “a strategic transition” in the run-up to the World Cup in North America in June and July.
“It’s a desire not to waste time and to take a different direction,” a source close to the Moroccan Federation told AFP.
“By appointing Mohamed Ouahbi and welcoming top-tier reinforcements, we are raising our standards and our demands,” the source said.
Morocco will be in Group C at the World Cup along with five-time winners Brazil, Scotland and Haiti.
They begin their campaign against Brazil at the MetLife Stadium just outside New York City on June 13 and will be hoping to make a big impression at the tournament before co-hosting the 2030 edition with Spain and Portugal.
“Our ambition is to consolidate our place among the best nations in a sustainable way and to perform well from this summer, as well as in 2030,” the leader of the Moroccan federation, Fouzi Lekjaa, said recently.
Regragui was hailed in 2022 after Morocco became the first African nation in World Cup history to reach the semifinals, beating Spain and Portugal along the way.
However, Regragui likely paid the ultimate price for the manner in which Morocco lost the recent AFCON final to Senegal.
His team were beaten 1-0 after extra-time at the end of a match marred by the Senegal team’s decision to walk off the pitch in protest at the award of a controversial late penalty to the hosts.
The penalty award with the game goalless sparked trouble in the crowd involving Senegal fans, 18 of whom were jailed following the disruption.
Real Madrid star Brahim Diaz eventually took the penalty after a long delay but his kick was saved and Senegal went on to win the game.
