Russell's Mercedes on pole for F1 GP in Las Vegas

George Russell has put his Mercedes on pole position for the Las Vegas Grand Prix as teammate Lewis Hamilton faltered to qualify only 10th.

As Russell saw off Ferrari's Carlos Sainz by just 0.098 seconds to land top spot in Sin City, Hamilton was left to rue two mistakes which leaves him way down the order.

Pierre Gasly took a surprise third for Alpine, one place ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

"It feels incredible to be back on pole, we've been so quick all weekend," Russell said.

"But I'm just so happy and we've got to do some deep diving to find out why we've been so quick because it's been a bit of a surprise."

Lando Norris must outscore Max Verstappen by at least three points to extend the title battle to the penultimate race in Qatar, but the British driver will start one place behind the Dutchman in sixth.

Australia's Oscar Piastri (1:33.033), in his McLaren, will jump from eighth.

"The day started off quite tough but we did our best and maximised everything that we could," Verstappen said.

"We did execute everything really well in qualifying and worked well as a team. I am ultimately happy with how it went ? I left everything out there and we ended up in P5.

"Everything looks a lot better than yesterday and hopefully with the things that we changed on the car, we are a bit more competitive tomorrow in the race."

Mercedes have looked quick all weekend with the cold conditions suiting their machinery, and while Russell landed a fourth pole of his career, Hamilton - three weeks after the horror show in Brazil which left him wondering whether to call a premature end to his career with the Silver Arrows - was unable to deliver.

Hamilton made a mistake at Turn 12 on his first attempt in Q3, and was forced to abandon the lap.

The seven-time world champion returned for his final assault but ran wide in the early part of the lap, and did not trouble the scorers with a time.

Russell whacked the wall on the exit of Turn 5 on his opening attempt and had to change his front wing but the Englishman, who now boasts a 17-5 record over Hamilton in qualifying this season, kept his cool to see off Sainz's challenge.

Sergio Perez endured another miserable outing after he was eliminated in Q1 for the sixth time this season.

Perez has a contract with Red Bull for another season but his future is in serious doubt such is his patchy form. He will line up 16th on Saturday night after he was usurped by RB's Liam Lawson - the New Zealander who could yet replace him next year.

There were glum faces on the Williams pit-wall, too, after Franco Colapinto wrecked his Williams.

Colapinto crashed out of the Brazilian Grand Prix, and the Argentine was back in the wall in the closing moments of Q2.

The start of Q3 was delayed by 20 minutes as the barriers were repaired.

With the AP.