Pierre Gasly followed up his Sao Paulo podium with an impressive lap in qualifying to put himself third for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. No one would have been expecting Alpine to repeat their heroics of Brazil but they have given themselves a chance to do just that with Gasly out-qualified only by Carlos Sainz and polesitter George Russell.

Asked to sum up his season in three words, Lando Norris thinks for a long time before settling on an answer. “Pretty damn good,” he says eventually. Then he has another think and downgrades the ‘good’ to ‘decent’.

The Red Bull racer could clinch the Formula 1 world championship Saturday night and join the elite club of four-time champions, alongside only Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Alain Prost and Juan Manuel Fangio.