2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying report and highlights: George Russell takes pole for Las Vegas Grand Prix over Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly

Q2 – Hamilton on top, Colapinto crashes hard

Hamilton declared his intentions as the second phase of qualifying began, pumping in 1m 33.136s – marginally quicker than Russell’s Q1 time – to set the pace, with Piastri just a thousandth adrift and Verstappen just six hundredths back in third.

Russell then made his move, producing a 1m 32.881s, which compared to an improved 1m 32.965s from team-mate Hamilton and low 1m 33s efforts from Leclerc and Verstappen – the latter having spent a few seconds on top of the times again.

Hamilton clocked 1m 32.567s on his final run and moved back into P1, closely followed by Sainz, Russell, Gasly, Leclerc and Piastri, as Verstappen, Tsunoda, Norris and Hulkenberg managed to settle into the other available Q3 places .

Colapinto’s last attempt to enter the pole vault ended dramatically when he clipped the wall on the inside of turn 16 and slammed into the barrier on the other side of the track, marking the latest significant crash for Williams after their Sao Paulo nightmare.

While Colapinto walked away from a stage full of dirt, mechanics will have a huge job on their hands to complete another round of repairs and enable him to start in P14, around other Q2 eliminated Ocon, Magnussen, Zhou (who came out of Q1 for the first time since Hungary) and Lawson.

Knocked out: Ocon, Magnussen, Zhou, Colapinto, Lawson