Autobayng News Team
Max Verstappen said he was unlucky to complete one lap less than Lando Norris after missing out on pole position to his championship rival in Las Vegas.
The Red Bull driver held provisional pole position after his last lap in qualifying. However Norris was able to complete one more timed lap than his rival in Q3 and took pole with his final effort.
Verstappen said he was “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.”
Norris was the second driver to leave the pits at the beginning of Q3, Verstappen the eighth. As a result Norris was able to complete six lap, one more than Verstappen, and had a drier track for his final run.
Asked whether he could have beaten Norris’s time if he had one more lap Verstappen said: “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.”
Verstappen was sixth after his first lap, fifth after his second, then moved up to second with his third. After backing off on his next lap he went fastest on his final lap – until Norris beat him.
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However he said he was content to take second on the grid. “I think if you look at the whole of Q3, we were never up there,” he said. “We were never first, we were never quick enough, and to be second is fine.”
Norris said he preferred to get on the track as quickly as possible at the start of Q3. “I was pretty happy to wait a little bit longer down the end of the pit lane and just have some cleaner air,” he said. “Stay out of the way of everyone else behind, try and avoid as much as possible the yellow flags and take that risk element out of it and just let me put some laps in, build the confidence in the car.
“Of course, I was, I think, the only one who got one more lap at the end of the run, and that worked out perfectly.”
Verstappen’s radio messages from the end of Q3
Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase informed him during the session they were unlikely to complete as many laps as Norris.
| Verstappen | How many laps to go? |
| Lambiase | Yeah, in terms of timings, I don’t think we’re going to make three more laps, so it’s two more laps, so just keep pushing and we’ll choose whether to abort this lap. |
| Lambiase | Verstappen backs out of his lap at turn 10 Max, if you want to cool the tyres now to turn 14 you can do and there’ll be one more lap. Can let Fernando through if you want to. |
| Lambiase | Verstappen does not let Alonso through Max we’ll have… |
| Verstappen | Interrupting I need clean air, I need clean air. |
| Lambiase | I was about to say we’ll have mode one, please, mode one. Pace 48.3 for now, 48.3. But Lando does have one more lap to go after this. Recharge off now. Get yourself gap to Carlos. Verstappen begins his final lap |
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At the end of the session Verstappen thought Norris’s lap might have been affected by the yellow flags Charles Leclerc triggered, but it was not.
| Lambiase | Verstappen finishes his final lap Okay, nice job. I don’t think it’s going to be good enough, Max. |
| Verstappen | There’s a yellow, double check that. |
| Lambiase | Expecting Norris to grab pole here. |
| Verstappen | Well, with the yellow, have a look. |
| Lambiase | No, no, Norris was already past the yellow, Max. So expecting him to grab pole. |
| Lambiase | Yeah, so Norris, pole, three tenths, he made a huge mistake as well at turn 16. Just the timings didn’t really work for us in that session, we had to cut a lap short and you’re one of the first to close, take the chequered flag. |
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2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix
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- Verstappen rues “unlucky” Q3 after completing one lap less than Norris
