Championship leader Lando Norris (McLaren) was fastest on the first day of track action for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, setting a time of 1.33.602 in the second session, held two hours earlier than last year. Second was Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes, 0”029 slower than the Englishman, with Charles Leclerc third for Ferrari running the Medium unlike the two ahead of him on Soft, 0”161 off the McLaren. The Monegasque driver ended the session with his car parked in an escape road, with a technical issue.

THE DAY ON TRACK:
In the first hour of practice under the lights on the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, Leclerc was quickest in 1’34”802, ahead of Alex Albon in the Williams and Yuki Tsunoda for Red Bull Racing. Most of the field started off on the Medium compound tyre, with Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) the only driver to run the Hard. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) was the first drive to try the softest compound Pirelli has brought here. All the cars are running very low Monza-like aero levels to suit the high speed nature of this street track.

A few drops of rain before the start of FP2 did not have any real effect on the state of the track surface and the entire field was soon out on Mediums, with the exception of Gabriel Bortoleto in the Sauber, who initially ran the C3, before joining the rest on the C4. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) was the first to attempt a qualifying simulation on the Softs, with the rest of the field following suit at the mid-point of the session. With 20 minutes remaining the red flags came out as a manhole cover was reported to have come loose before turn 17. The session resumed with six minutes remaining, but when there was just two minutes left on the clock, the red flags came out again for the same reason and the track did not go green again. It means the timesheet did not tell the full story today, with some drivers not able to complete a qualifying simulation. The red flags also made the session hard to read because drivers never managed any long runs to acquire data useful for the race. The fact that the track is always very dirty at the start of the weekend means track evolution was very high and lap speeds will continue to fall rapidly tomorrow, rain permitting.

MARIO ISOLA, PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT:
“As expected, right from the first free-practice session the effect of track evolution at the Las Vegas circuit was very noticeable. The track is only closed to normal road traffic a few hours before the cars go out, so it was very dirty at first and began to rubber in progressively as the number of laps increased, which was reflected in the drop in the lap times seen from the start to the end of the sessions.

“The times were lower than those seen in the same session last year: Lando Norris beat Hamilton’s best 2024 FP2 time by just over two tenths, a time that is already close to last year’s pole position lap.

In FP1, low track temperatures lead to graining on Medium and Soft compounds, although less so than last year and it had no effect on wear.

This factor mainly affected the front axle, which was subjected to the biggest cooling effect on the main straight and is also the cause of the understeer that cars can experience at this track.

“The difference in the tyres’ final appearance across the various compounds was largely influenced by the different programmes adopted by the teams. The Mediums, used for more laps with high fuel loads, showed greater signs of graining compared to the Softs, which were used almost exclusively for qualifying simulations.

The track improvement and the low fuel loads used during the runs in the second free-practice session, before it was interrupted by the red flag, helped to significantly improve the condition of the tyres.

The Hards, which delivered lap times not far off those of the Mediums, appear to be the ideal candidate for Sunday’s race, especially if teams can find the key to extending their stint and making the most of them in terms of possible strategies."