Lando

There are few strategy options as well, because of a unique aspect of this race.

Lusail’s plethora of long-duration, medium- and high-speed corners place heavy demands on the tyres, and the sharp kerbs make matters worse.

Tyre supplier Pirelli, fearing punctures, has imposed a mandatory maximum of 25 laps usage on any set of tyres, which makes the race a two pit-stop strategy at least.

There is plenty of jeopardy, though. Both Piastri and Mercedes’ George Russell – who was second in the sprint and has qualified fourth for the grand prix – suffered tears in their front tyres before the end of the 19-lap sprint.

For Piastri, this race marked a timely return to form after a difficult run of races through the autumn.

He looked like a champion elect when his victory in the Dutch Grand Prix, in addition to Norris’ retirement with a fuel-line failure, gave Piastri a 34-point lead in the championship. He had until then been the more convincing McLaren driver this season.

But Piastri has been on the podium only once since then, at the very next race, and a run of grands prix in which he has made mistakes and lacked pace have seen Norris wrest control of the title race from him.

For Piastri – as for Verstappen – really only a win will do tomorrow. Or at the very least they need to beat Norris.

Piastri said: “I’ve been kind of in that same situation the whole weekend and it’s gone well so far.

“So I think I’ve gained you know a lot of confidence back that when things are in the right place and when I’m in the rhythm that things can happen without needing to do anything special.

“So I’m confident we can try and do the same tomorrow. And (I’m) ready for the fight.”

As all three pointed out, though, a lot can happen in the 200 miles of a grand prix.

Other cars can cause problems. There can be safety cars, incidents, retirements.

The tyre restrictions mean the race will likely be flat out from start to finish, or as close as it gets. So mistakes are more likely.

For all that the occasional grand prix can be soporific, and for all many drivers expect this one to be, a race can go awry in many more ways than it can go well.

Verstappen, who is competing for his fifth world title while the McLaren drivers seek their first, knows this all too well.

“You never know what happens in a race,” he said. “We have a two-stop and also some things are not in your control, right?

“There might be some crazy things that also happen behind you, so you just need to keep everything open.

“We’ll try everything we can, try to have a good start, then try to look after our tyres a little bit better because the understeer that we have in the car is normally also not good on race pace for that, but we’ll try to minimise the damage.”

As for how to wind down before the day on which he achieves his lifetime ambition, Norris said he was going to try to relax in his hotel room on Saturday night.

“Play some basketball in my room. Actual basketball. I’m going to go home, get a spaghetti bolognese in, play some Counter-Strike, probably lose some Elo (ratings) and then go to bed.”

Other than that, he said, he would try to stay away from the media, “go and see my engineers, do some work, prepare the best I can. See what opportunities may arise.”

The biggest prize in motorsport is waiting there for someone. Who will grasp it?

Piastri’s pole came despite a major oversteer moment on the entry to Turn Four, which he estimated had cost him about 0.2secs and he described as “pretty scary – turning left in a right-hand corner is never good, especially when you’re doing however many hundreds of kilometres an hour you’re doing there”.

Underlying Verstappen’s troubles, the Dutchman was beaten by his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in qualifying for the first time this season, the Japanese faster by 0.009secs.

Verstappen was complaining, with added swear words, through the session over the radio about the car bouncing.

Despite that, he was fastest in the first session, and within 0.1secs of the McLaren drivers in the second. But he damaged his floor with an off at Turn Four on his first flying lap in the final session, compromising his car’s performance.

It was the first time he had been out-qualified by a team-mate since the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Verstappen said: “Not good. From the first lap just really bad bouncing and very aggressive understeer that would switch into oversteer in high speed. Just not what you want. We tried to change a few things on the wheel but it never really worked.

“With this balance, in the sprint it will not be a lot of fun. It will be more about trying to survive and then make some changes going into qualifying.”

Although overshadowed by the title fight, arguably the star of sprint qualifying was Fernando Alonso, who put the Aston Martin fourth on the grid – an outstanding performance for a team that lies eighth in the constructors’ championship.

“One of the best results of the year,” he said. “Tough circuit, high-speed sections and the car seemed in the window already in first practice. A bit of stress in Q2 because of traffic but we made it into Q3 and then we put a lap together.

“Twenty-four years’ experience, 44 years old, it has some disadvantages. I get a bit more tired with the jet lag.

“But I know the tracks, the tyres, and know how to extract everything on Fridays, and then on Saturdays it’s true we open parc ferme and make some small changes to the cars and everyone seems to get on top of the circuit.”

Behind him, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli was seventh, with the Williams of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon sandwiching Leclerc.

Hamilton said almost nothing in his sole media interview after the session.

Asked how tricky the car was, he said: “Same as always.”

At the start, Norris was true to his claim that he was “not here not to take risks” as he fought hard to defend his advantage from pole position from Verstappen.

But after an aggressive cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Dutchman’s attack on the inside, Norris misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the corner.

That allowed Verstappen to drive past into the lead while Norris also lost second place to Russell.

Through two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the start when Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the race.

Russell made an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Norris and Verstappen stayed out.

Norris stopped five laps after the Mercedes and Verstappen 10.

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres.

Norris rejoined behind Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to allow his tyres to settle, soon closed his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes and swept by into second place on lap 34.

Norris asked his engineer how to run the rest of his race, effectively asking whether he should settle for second or attack.

He was told to “go and get Max” but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was easily able to repel Norris’ attacks, and in the closing stages the margin extended significantly as the McLaren began to suffer a technical issue which has so far not been defined.

Despite losing nearly three seconds a lap, Norris was able to hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while chasing Verstappen.

The Red Bull driver’s sixth win of the season – only one behind both McLaren drivers – was taken in emphatic style and and keeps him in title contention, at least mathematically, even if he requires problems for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him.

“It’s still a big gap, we always try and maximise everything we’ve got,” Verstappen said.

“In upcoming weekends we will try and win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I’m very proud of everyone.”

The conditions were treacherous, the session starting after heavy rain on a track wet enough for the extreme wet tyres, which nearly all drivers used throughout the first two sessions.

Norris was not especially fast on the extreme wet tyres, but once on to the intermediate tyres in the final session was consistently the fastest driver on track.

Verstappen, usually so strong in wet conditions, was not quite on the Briton’s level but his second place on the grid makes him a serious threat for the lead into the first corner of the race given his usually aggressive start to races.

Norris survived a wobble on his final lap when he hit the kerb through the Turns 14, 15, 16 chicane but was still fast enough for pole as others behind him were affected by a yellow flag caused by Piastri as he tried to negotiate Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar on his inside, which forced him to run wide.

“That was stressful, stressful as hell,” Norris said. “I didn’t know no-one else would get a lap after me. The first two sectors were good. As soon as you hit the kerb a little bit wrong it’s tricky, it snapped one way and then the other but good enough for pole.

“No-one’s driven here in the wet before. After Q1, every corner you felt like you could crash every corner. One lap at a time. It was a tricky one.”

Piastri told Sky Sports: “There was more out there that we didn’t get to use. We’ve got a good car underneath us that seems to be working well in all conditions so we can have a strong race tomorrow and hopefully make up some spots.”

Championship leader Lando Norris was fastest in a second practice session at the Las Vegas Grand Prix interrupted and then curtailed by a loose manhole cover.

The McLaren driver was 0.029 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third, 0.161secs off the pace.

But the interruptions to the session meant a number of top drivers did not get runs on the soft tyre during the session, including Norris’ team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.

The manhole cover will likely mean a long night for race officials.

The problem emerged at Turn 17, the final corner, about 20 minutes before the end of the session.

Hamilton also faces an investigation for failing to slow sufficiently for the yellow flags waved when Leclerc lost control.

Norris topped all three sessions in sprint qualifying and had a comfortable advantage over Piastri throughout.

He said: “It was a little bit tougher than I would have liked. But we did the job we needed to do, which was to be fastest today.

“Qualifying is always one of the best things here. It’s difficulty, it’s bumpy, it’s tricky, always a joy, always puts a smile on your face.

“But a long weekend, another qualifying and another couple of races to go but a good start.”

Rain is forecast for Saturday morning in Sao Paulo, when the sprint race is due to start at 14:00 GMT. Qualifying for the grand prix is at 18:00.

Norris’ result is the best possible start to the weekend and gives him the opportunity to build his championship lead – eight points are awarded to the winner of the sprint, seven for second and so on down to eighth place.

Antonelli impressed in second, his best time set on his first lap, while the surprise package of qualifying was Alonso, who set the fastest time in the second session and was just 0.253secs off pole in his midfield car in the final shootout.

His team-mate Lance Stroll was seventh fastest, ahead of Leclerc, Racing Bulls’ Iscak Hadjar and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg.