George Russell "put it all on the table" to surge to a surprise pole position at the Las Vegas Grand Prix with an impressive qualifying display. (More Motorsport News)
After Mercedes had topped all three practice sessions on Friday, Russell was able to convert his team's electric practice pace into a fourth career pole.
The Briton finished 0.098 seconds ahead of the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, while Alpine's Pierre Gasly built on his podium at Interlagos last time out by finishing third, with Charles Leclerc starting in fourth.
While it was Russell’s out-going Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton who swept Thursday’s free practice sessions, the seven-time world champion could only manage 10th.
Asked if pole was expected coming into the weekend, Russell replied: “Honestly, absolutely not. It feels incredible to be back on pole.
“We’ve been so quick all weekend and I just knew coming into that last Q3 lap… that’s going to be the one that counts. It doesn’t matter what happened before then.
"I'm just so happy, and we've got to do some deep diving to understand why we’ve been so quick so far this weekend, because it was a real surprise!”
"Ultimately, you’ve got to put it on the table sometimes. I felt confident in myself – I knew if I did a clean lap, it would be enough to secure a front row, so to get pole position is incredible," Russell said.
"Ultimately, we’ve had a few good qualifying recently – we need to convert that into a win now."
Max Verstappen will share the third row of the grid with his sole remaining opponent for the title, Lando Norris, after qualifying fifth.
The Dutchman knows that he must finish ahead of the Briton's McLaren to claim a fourth consecutive world title, putting him level with Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel.
However, Verstappen believes that Red Bull are "just a bit too slow" after struggling for one-lap performance throughout the course of the weekend's action.
"We have been struggling to get the tyres to work over a lap, and we are slow on the straights as well, especially in qualifying," Verstappen said.
"You can see our rear wing, it’s trimmed down quite a lot, around the DRS flap, so when we open DRS we don’t get the gains like others do, so that makes it a bit more complicated around here.
“But that’s our own fault. We know that, that's a compromise we have, but nevertheless, I tried to do the best I could.
"It was quite close for P3, little details that could have been a bit better maybe, but overall I'm happy with the laps, was not much more in it."
