Las Vegas Grand Prix: Lando Norris in first place with Oscar Piastri in fifth place

“It’s really slippery in the dry, but in the wet it’s not fun. It felt like I was driving on ice,” Verstappen said.

“I felt like we were more competitive on the extreme tyres. We weren’t competitive enough to fight for first place but second place was still good.

“Excited for tomorrow, hopeful inside [of the grid] “It’s good in terms of grip but we’ll see.”

Sainz’s rise to third was a strong performance in a car that was not expected to be quick in the wet, but he faces an investigation for reversing unsafely in the first session.

Behind Piastri, the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Isaac Hager finished sixth and eighth, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso just one behind.

Leclerc and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly finished ninth and tenth.

Piatri had Aston Martin’s decision to switch Lance Stroll to the medium tires for the final round of Q2 to thank for moving into the top ten in the shootout.

Stroll had been fast even then but was unable to get the tires up and running in time before the end of the session to better his previous time.

Hamilton struggled throughout the first session and qualified last on a fast pace for the first time in his career.

“It was very slippery and the first set of tires didn’t work for us and I had a hard time generating heat in the tires for some reason,” he said.

“It’s a shame because the guys did a great job and the car was great in FP3 and I really felt like we had good pace, but then the rain came. Honestly, there’s not much to say.”