Lando Norris gets away from a third consecutive pole position as he targets a third pole-to-flag victory in a row. Title rivals Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen start second and fifth respectively.
1- Verstappen
2- Norris
3- Sainz
4- Leclerc
5- Piastri
6- Hadjar
7- Russell (has pitted)
8- Hulkenberg
9- Ocon
10- Hamilton
No sign of responding to Russell's pit-stop for Verstappen and Norris just yet.
Norris, incidentally, has upped his pace in the clearer air created by Russell ahead pitting.
He is still three seconds behind Verstappen though, the Dutchman looking his consummate rock-solid best when in control of a race
Russell bites first to pit from second place, returning to the track in seventh place after Bearman helpfully also pitted out of that place
VSC has ended and Piastri wastes no time in getting up to speed, dispatching of Hadjar to move back into sixth place
If proceedings stay as they are to the end, Norris (third) would extend his points' lead by seven points over Piastri (sixth)
A second VSC of the evening for a plucky marshal to sprint onto track down the long final straight to pick up some discarded Williams bodywork
They had been attached to Alex Albon's car but clipped Hamilton's Ferrari while attempting to overtake, necessitating an unscheduled stop and some global television coverage role for a fast-moving marshal
We may be 15 laps into this race already - which is almost a third of the way - but stewards are still willing to hand out a penalty for a jump-start.
Kimi Antonelli is the unlucky recipient, the Italian judged to have moved before the lights went out.
He's down in 13th having started 17th and already completed a pit-stop in the initial laps to ditch his soft tyres
Problems for Russell?
The Briton is rather fraught as he bellows down the radio that he has an issue with the steering - 'the same thing with the steering' he declares. Followed by a customary expletive...
He remains second on the road though, 1.6secs behind leader Verstappen.
Leclerc carries his momentum all the way past Hadjar to move into the top five now - Piastri moves back onto the tail of Hadjar
Another blow for Piastri as he loses a place to Leclerc and drops to seventh place.
The title contender had been reeling Hadjar in enough to look on the cusp of a move into the top five, only for the hard-charging Leclerc to pop up and steal his sixth place spot from him instead.
1- Verstappen
2- Russell
3- Norris
4- Sainz
5- Hadjar
6- Piastri
7- Leclerc
8- Bearman
9- Alonso
10- Hulkenberg (only driver in top ten on hard tyres)
Verstappen has responded to Russell's threat to stretch the lead out to more than a second once again.
Norris is running a fairly lonely third at the moment, 3.0s behind Russell, while Sainz and Hadjar are circulating closely in a comfortable fourth and fifth place at the moment.
Piastri, meanwhile, is 1.4s behind Hadjar in sixth place, the Australian circulating one position lower than where he qualified after being biffed out wide by an errant Lawson at Turn 1 on Lap 1.
Verstappen is really coming under pressure in the lead from Russell, who has beaten down the gap to just 0.6s and now means he is well within DRS range
The pair have dropped Norris, who isn't making much headway in third place after his lap one fumble - he is 2.5s behind Russell in second place
Leclerc dismisses Bearman for seventh place.
In other Ferrari news, Hamilton has climbed from 19th on the grid to be running just on the edge of the points in 11th place already.
There were some big winners in that melee as drivers - including Norris - misjudged the level of grip available into Turn 1.
One driver who did hold his line was Ollie Bearman, who has scythed from 13th to seventh - a fifth straight top ten finish is definitely on for the rookie!
We are back racing again with Verstappen holding a 1.2s lead over Russell, putting him crucially out of DRS range.
Norris is 1.8s adrift of Russell
Bortoleto has joined Stroll on the DNF list - ironically Bortoleto retired last time out in Brazil on lap one after a collision with Stroll
The virtual safety car has been called towards the end of lap two heading into lap three.
There is debris at Turn 1 after multiple incidents through the field on lap one, including Liam Lawson slapping Oscar Piastri - and losing his front wing in the process to spoil his strong qualifying effort.
Behind them, Gabriel Bortoleto missed his braking entirely and slammed into Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly, putting the former into retirement and the latter into a spin
Verstappen leads at the end of the opening lap after saying a big yes please when Norris run wide at the first corner - the pair made light contact in the recovery but neither car was damaged.
1- Verstappen
2- Russell
3- Norris
4- Sainz
5- Hadjar
6- Piastri
7- Bearman
8-- Leclerc
9- Alonso
10- Hulkenberg
Norris gets a good start and protects the inside line into Turn 1 but he runs too deep and runs wide enough to lose the lead to Verstappen.
Russell also gets past Norris on the run to Turn 4. Norris down to third place, Sainz fourth, Hadjar fifth
...and the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix is GO, GO, GO!
...and that means we get a first look at the tyre compounds.
Mediums for the vast majority of the grid.
The highest-placed driver to go alternative is Gasly on the hards in 10th, while Hulkenberg, Colapinto, Albon, Bortoleto and Hamilton.
Antonelli in 17th has gone for the softs though
A quick reminder of how the three-way title race stands heading into this race.
Lando Norris heads Oscar Piastri by 24 points, while he leads Max Verstappen by 49 points.
There is a maximum of 83 points still on the table this season, including the points on offer here in Vegas today.
As such, if Norris out-scores Verstappen by nine points today, the Red Bull driver's title defence will be over and it will leave a two-man all-McLaren shootout for the 2025 F1 World Championship title
Then again, Leclerc fared better than Lewis Hamilton , who messed up the Turn 14/15 chicane on his final out-lap, which scrubbed off speed and left him just out of time to make it round to start his final lap.
It consigned him to 20th and last on the timesheets - the first time he has qualified last in his entire F1 career, though he will start 19th by way of Yuki Tsunoda taking a penalty
As for the rest of the top ten, a good showing from Racing Bulls again to qualify sixth and eighth - Lawson ahead of Hadjar - while Alonso typically kept a cool head in treacherous conditions to be rewarded with seventh.
As for Ferrari, it was a torrid Friday as Charles Leclerc suffered multiple trips into the escape road, almost hit the wall and even stalled the car while it was still rolling. He made it to Q3 but could only manage ninth once there.
George Russell had been quickest in FP3, Q1 and Q2 but would end up having to settle for fourth when it mattered, but the Mercedes driver could be a bigger factor in race trim than he has been of late...
Piastri heads up row three and he'll need to get a move on from there if wants to avoid getting mired in that mid-top-ten for too long as he did in Mexico and Brazil.
We said the same thing in Brazil, only for Piastri to go a smidge too bold and trigger a penalty-inducing collision. Lots for him to weigh up, but he really can't afford to lose any more points to Norris today
Rain is the great leveller as they say, so well done to Carlos Sainz for getting in among the upper reaches with his run to third on the grid in the Williams.
There had been some nervy moments for the Spaniard after he was caught out rejoining the track into the path of Lance Stroll in Q1 after an early off.
However, stewards agreed the poor visibility and the fact Stroll wasn't on a fast lap means there would be no penalty
Oh, and that Williams livery looks sharp this weekend...
