LAS VEGAS -- Lando Norris' attempt to rewrite his personal history at the Las Vegas Grand Prix couldn't have started any better.

McLaren's championship front-runner will start the Saturday race from the front of the grid after clinching first place with a timely final lap at the conclusion of the third and final stage of a rainy qualifying session on Friday.

Norris eclipsed Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 0.323, depriving the reigning four-time champion of what would have been his eighth pole of the season. Friday marked the first wet qualifying session since the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix last November, where Norris also claimed pole position and but Verstappen won that weekend's Grand Prix.

Norris, 26, can move within proverbial inches of his first World Drivers' Championship with a win -

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