The F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix opened with a dramatic pair of practice sessions marked by cool temperatures, light rain, and red flags. Charles Leclerc topped FP1 for Ferrari, while Lando Norris led FP2 under the night lights. With surprise performances from Alex Albon and Nico Hülkenberg and setbacks for Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, the weekend is already proving exciting.
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FP1
The F1 drivers started in cool weather conditions. During the practice, the temperature was around 14ºC.
Charles Leclerc and Ferrari got off to a good start: the Monegasque driver finished at the top with a time of 1:34.802. The Williams driver Alex Albon finished second. They were followed by the two Red Bulls, in this time Yuki Tsunoda was faster than Max Verstappen.
McLaren’s world championship leader, Lando Norris finished sixth, while his main championship rival and teammate, Oscar Piastri was only eighth. The two Mercedes cars were in the top 10 also, while Lewis Hamilton ended the session in 11th place.
FP2
The second Vegas GP practice session was held at night, and although drizzling rain made things difficult for the drivers at the start of the session, but it quickly subsided.
Lando Norris set the fastest lap time with 1:33.602. He was followed by 29 thousandths of Mercedes’s George Russell, and Charles Leclerc came to third. However he had to park his Ferrari in the final minutes of the session due to a technical problem.
The session was interrupted twice with red flags: firstly when a marshal reported a drain cover may have come loose at turn 17. The second, shortly before the end of the session, according to the FIA, due to track maintenance.
Nico Hülkenberg also performed well, finished fourth, ahead of the Racing Bulls duo. George Russell finished seventh, with Alex Albon, Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton also finishing in the top 10, Oscar Piastri finished only 14th this time, who could not complete many clean laps on softs due to the conditions.
The full results of the free practice according to FIA.com:
