McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari are all aiming to challenge for pole position at Friday night’s Las Vegas Grand Prix after a disjointed practice session on Thursday.
A red flag for a suspected loose manhole cover limited some running in the second half of FP2 as the track continued to evolve at high speed. This meant that many teams did not conduct soft tire laps on the first day of track practice to gauge potential qualifying performance. Lando Norris set the fastest time in the second session on a track where McLaren struggled last season, and the championship leader feels he is in better shape this year.
- Norris rises to the top in second Las Vegas GP practice after red flag changes
Leclerc speeds up at the start of Las Vegas GP practice
Leclerc speeds up at the start of Las Vegas GP practice
“I think the car feels better than last year, so that’s a positive thing. I could already feel it from about the first lap,” Norris said. “That made me feel good.
“Obviously in the end we didn’t have that much running and it wasn’t really a fuel-heavy run, but the pace was definitely there. I think it was pretty tight between a lot of people and a lot of people couldn’t even get on a lap. So apart from that, I think we made a little bit of progress from FP1 to FP2. Hopefully we could make a little bit more progress from FP2 to FP3.”
Besides teammate Oscar Piastri, Norris’ other title rival is Max Verstappen, who believes Red Bull have a bit of work to do but are not out of the woods.
“It was okay,” Verstappen said. “It’s a little difficult to figure out what to do with these interruptions. I think we still need to improve a little bit to find a little more grip. Also, the track is, of course, improving a lot from session to session. So I’ll just focus on that, seeing how I can work with the tires for qualifying and the race.”
“It’s much colder here (compared to other low-downforce tracks that Red Bull is good at) and the surface is very slippery. So you can’t compare it to other tracks just because the downforce is low. So it’s not a given that you can go fast here.”
Russell feels Mercedes are in the running, but will need to go all out to repeat their success in Las Vegas in 2024. Sam Bagnall/Getty Images
Mercedes dominated last year in Las Vegas and George Russell believes his team will be back in contention, although he didn’t expect a repeat.
“I think we’re somewhere in the middle,” Russell said. “I think we had to be realistic. There were a lot of expectations for us going into this weekend, but we’ve made a lot of changes to the car since last year. It’s definitely made the car better over the course of the season. Maybe we weren’t as competitive as we were here 12 months ago, but it was close.”
“There was a lot of (competition). Lando was fast. Verstappen and (Charles) Leclerc were fast in FP1. Kimi (Antonelli) was fast. A lot of teams will make some small changes to their cars this weekend, based on how good we were here last year. I wouldn’t be surprised if they bring in more. So, like I said, I don’t want to get ahead of myself. We haven’t exactly set the time sheet, so we have to be realistic. “We’re right there or there, but definitely not a complete dunk. ”
Leclerc led FP1 before Thursday night’s late stop, but the Ferrari driver also expects a four-way battle ahead of Friday’s track session.
“Honestly, I don’t think we’re in a bad situation, but we’ll have to wait and see,” Leclerc said. “I think Mercedes are very strong and obviously McLaren and Red Bull are also in the fight, so I think it’s going to be a close battle. I just hope we can strengthen the team now and be able to fight for pole.”
“But today was a positive day. I think the pace was strong… It’s important to anticipate what the conditions will be like (Friday) and get the start right, but we have a pretty clear idea of what we want to do to improve the car, so we’ll see if those were the right choices.”
