Under tricky conditions that started with rain and ended on a wet track, Norris mastered the challenge, setting a pole time of 1m47.934s for his seventh of the season.

Piastri had held provisional pole halfway through Q3, but was soon eclipsed by Norris, who went nearly a second faster on the final runs.

Norris’s time was briefly bettered by Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen, before he reclaimed pole despite a slight compromise heading into Turn 14 on his last push lap.

Piastri suffered more, caught in a bizarre incident with the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar approaching Turn 14, where Charles Leclerc had earlier gone off. Side by side into the corner, Piastri went off to avoid a collision, costing him any chance of improving his time and leaving him to fight back in the race.

Norris’s lap ultimately beat Verstappen and Sainz, with the championship leader pleased despite a late nervous moment.

“It was stressful. Stressful as hell,” he said.

“I didn’t know no one else was going to get the lap after me. I knew I felt the first few sectors were good.

“It’s so slippery out there. As soon as you’re in the kerb as I did you snap one way, you lose the car the other way. Close to hitting the wall.

“But good enough for P1 today. Not the nicest of conditions but I’m happy it stopped raining and we could get a good qualifying on.”

Verstappen echoed Norris’s assessment, adding he was happy with his front row start.

“It was really really slippery out there. It’s already slippery in the dry, but in the wet, yeah it’s not fun I can tell you that,” he said.

“I mean I like to drive in the wet, this felt more like driving on ice. So it took a long time to get the tyres to work a little bit.

“I do feel like we were a little bit more competitive on the extreme tyre. But yeah, the track is improving so you have to move on to the inter.

“I struggled a lot just to have any kind of grip. Final lap you risk a little bit more, but it was still of course by far not enough to fight for first. But still to be on the front row is good for us.”

Sainz delivered his best qualifying since Baku, and said he was happy with P3 despite thinking he could have gone faster if the track had stayed wetter.

“This track maybe suited our car in the dry and in the wet in FP3 we didn’t look very promising but we did a few changes to the car which I think helped on the wet,” he said.

“That allowed me to from the first lap of Q1 every time I was finishing the lap I was P1.

“On the extra wet I was really really quick. On inter I knew the others would maybe catch up a bit but yeah happy with P3.”

Sainz however faces a nervous wait, with the Spaniard under investigation for a Q1 incident where he re-entered the track after going off at Turn 5, narrowly avoiding Lance Stroll in the process.

Last year’s Vegas polesitter George Russell will start fourth ahead of Piastri, with Liam Lawson putting in another strong run to line up sixth.

Fernando Alonso was seventh, one spot ahead of Hadjar, while Leclerc could only manage ninth, just ahead of Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.

Q2 saw Stroll take a late gamble with tyre strategy, switching to inters for a late run as the track dried only marginally.

While the rest of the field stayed on full wets, the Canadian couldn’t find enough pace and ended 12th, missing Q3.

Joining him in elimination were Nico Hulkenberg, the Haas pair Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman, and the second Alpine of Franco Colapinto.

Lewis Hamilton was the biggest casualty of a wild Q1 that featured two late accidents and multiple yellow flags.

The Ferrari driver was one of the most affected by the late chaos, which began when Bearman locked up and gently hit the wall, followed soon after by Alex Albon damaging his Williams after clipping the barrier.

 

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Hamilton crossed the line in time for a final push lap as the chequered flag fell, but later told media he believed he’d missed the cutoff, aborting the attempt and leaving him last — his worst qualifying of the season and the first time he has qualified last since the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2017. Earlier footage showed him running over a cone at a chicane on his penultimate lap, possibly contributing to his struggles.

The session began cautiously, with most drivers testing the wet conditions on intermediates rather than full wets.

Norris was among those struggling early with low grip, while the Aston Martin pair of Stroll and Alonso were the only ones to head out on full wets from the start.

Their choice allowed them to set the initial pace, with others eventually catching up when they switched to the same tyre.

Several drivers went off early in the session — Verstappen, Hadjar and Leclerc all spinning or heading into the runoff as they adapted to the conditions.

Rain eased late in the session but the track stayed wet, prompting a late flurry of times that created nervous moments for the likes of Leclerc and Norris, who briefly flirted with elimination before advancing safely.

Albon’s crash meant he joined Hamilton on the sidelines for Q2, along with Kimi Antonelli, Gabriel Bortoleto and Yuki Tsunoda.

With dry conditions expected for tomorrow’s race, the lack of dry, clean running so far should set up an entertaining night under the lights in Las Vegas.

The race begins at 8pm local time Saturday (3pm AEDT Sunday).