Max Verstappen walked away from a soaked Las Vegas Strip on Friday night sounding more relieved than frustrated.
The Red Bull driver will start Saturday night’s event from the front row after clocking in second to Lando Norris in a treacherous qualifying session – an outcome he readily admitted was “good for us,” even if the experience getting there was anything but enjoyable.
Qualifying began under steady rain, the neon-lit street circuit offering barely any grip and almost no visibility. Even the four-time world champion – well known for relishing wet-weather battles – found little to love.
“It was really, really slippery out there,” he said after the daunting session.
“It’s already slippery in the dry but in the wet… it’s not fun, I can tell you that. 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 bit."
More Competitive on Full Wets
As conditions marginally improved through the session, the field moved from full wets to intermediates. Verstappen, however, struggled to extract the same performance on the latter compound.
©RedBull
“I did feel that we were a little bit more competitive on the extreme tyre, but the track is improving so we have to move on to the inter,” he explained.
“I struggled a lot just to have any kind of grip, and the final lap of course you risk a little bit more, but it was still by far not enough to fight for first.”
Despite that deficit, he found comfort in where he had landed.
“But still to be on the front row I think is good for us. The lap felt alright, it’s just super difficult out there to get all the braking zones right and be on the limit of the tyres as well, but we did it. Excited for tomorrow, I hope the inside is okay in terms of grip, but we will see.”
Fighting Blind Through the Spray
Beyond the lack of grip, Verstappen also highlighted one of the session’s most unnerving challenges: seeing anything at all.
“The visibility was also very tough,” he acknowledged. “In these cars as well, the ground effect era, there’s a lot of weight that gets picked up from the floor, so when it rains there’s a lot of water and spray.”
That led to drivers giving themselves huge gaps on their push laps – something the Dutchman defended as essential for survival.
“That’s why you always want at least eight seconds, and I know it’s a lot, otherwise you don’t really see what’s happening in front of you,” he added.
With Norris claiming pole by three-tenths, Verstappen knows he’ll have work to do on Saturday – though with a drier race expected, the competitive picture could shift dramatically.
For now, he leaves qualifying satisfied with the result, less so with the experience. Ice racing in the Nevada desert wasn’t on anyone’s weekend bingo card, least of all his.
Las Vegas Grand Prix - Qualifying results
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