Marko makes Max Verstappen admission as Norris clinches Las Vegas pole

Max Verstappen put his Red Bull on the front row for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but title rival Lando Norris landed a fresh blow by claiming pole.

According to Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko, pole position was the expectation after Q2, but pointed to “traffic” as a critical enemy for Verstappen at crunch time in Q3. Verstappen, meanwhile, felt that pole was never realistically on the cards throughout that final stage of qualifying.

Helmut Marko rues missed Max Verstappen pole

The conditions were treacherous for qualifying around the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, as drivers took on the new challenge of navigating this circuit in the wet and chilly weather.

The rarely-seen extreme wet tyres were in use for much of Q1 and Q2, before the intermediates took over in Q3, with the battle for pole position wide open.

Williams’ Carlos Sainz briefly went onto provisional pole, but when all was said and done, championship leader Lando Norris had secured the P1 grid slot. Verstappen slotted in three-tenths behind to join Norris on the front row, as he bids to keep his title hopes alive.

“After Q1 and Q2, we actually expected pole position,” was Marko’s verdict as he spoke to Sky, “but the timing didn’t work out. We missed the last lap, just like Lando did.

“It’s the traffic that messes everything up. You have to make sure you have a reasonably clear lap. Maybe we went out a little too early.”

Verstappen goes into the Las Vegas race 49 points behind Norris at the top of the Drivers’ Championship. If Norris outscores Verstappen by nine points in the Saturday night race, that would officially end Verstappen’s hopes of a fifth straight title.

However, Marko has reason for optimism looking ahead to the race.

“No one did a long run, so you don’t know what it will be like in dry [conditions],” Marko stated.

“It will be exciting, also in terms of tyre choice. But we have nothing to lose.”

While Marko believed that pole was within reach after Q2, Verstappen did not feel such pace underneath him during that vital top 10 shootout.

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Discussing the conditions as he spoke in the post-qualifying press conference, Verstappen said: “It was super slippery. It felt like ice. To be honest, not a lot of fun to do.

“I mean, I love driving in the wet, but this for me is a little bit too much, I would say. You just have to be super careful. And honestly, I was surprised there were not too many incidents. So everyone was behaving, I think, quite well, or scared. Whatever.

“I think we were a little bit more competitive on the extreme than the inter. Just super hard to do a clean lap. You have people backing out, yellow flags, locking up yourself, 360, all of that.

“We just went through qualifying without too many dramas, I would say. And to be on the front row is good. A bit unlucky of course with not having another lap, but I think if you look at the whole of Q3, we never really were in contention for pole anyway, so it’s fine like this.”

Asked if Norris was within reach though considering the constantly improving track conditions, Verstappen replied: “Well, yeah. But it doesn’t unfortunately work like that.

“Of course the track does dry up and normally, lap after lap, you should be able to go faster, but there was no time. I think if you look at the whole of Q3, we were never up there. We were never first, we were never quick enough, and to be second is fine.”

Grand Prix Saturday in Las Vegas is expected to herald a return to dry conditions. Verstappen does believe that this will suddenly make the Red Bull RB21 “amazing”, but he has certainly not abandoned hope.

“It’s a bit difficult to say,” Verstappen responded when asked if he is confident of the RB21’s pace in the dry. “We didn’t really do any proper long running. In FP1 I did a little bit, which was not entirely to my liking.

“So I hope with the changes we’ve made since then that it will be a little bit better. But I’m not expecting it to be amazing. I hope we have a chance to do well.”

In addition to Verstappen’s Drivers’ Championship battle, Red Bull is in the hunt for second in the Constructors’ Championship. The team sits third ahead of the Las Vegas race, 32 points behind Mercedes.

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