F1 – Hamilton quickest again in Las Vegas ahead of Norris as Verstappen struggles

Lewis Hamilton made it a clean sweep of practice sessions by topping the second hour or running at the Las Vegas Strip circuit. The Mercedes driver took top spot just over one hundredth of a second clear of McLaren title contender Lando Norris as Red Bull’s championship leader Max Verstappen finished a lowly 17th. 

At the start of the session, with the field on Medium tyres, the early pace was set by FP1’s fastest man Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver posted a lap of 1:35.805 but that was soon eclipsed by the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz and then by his Mercedes team-mate George Russell who moved to the top with a lap of 1:34.979 as the quarter hour mark approached. 

Championship leader Max Verstappen was struggling, however, and after complaining about grip levels, the Red Bull driver went straight on at Turn 14 and into the run-off area. He rejoined but languished in 10thplace, behind Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg. 

At the top of the order, Leclerc moved ahead of Russell to the tune of five hundredths of a second, while Sainz split the Mercedes by moving four tenths clear of Hamilton. 

Franco Colapinto then signalled the move to qualifying simulations with the Williams driver taking to the circuit on Soft compound C5 tyres as the 20-minute mark arrived. The Argentinian didn’t make huge gains, however, cutting a little over two tenths from his Medium tyre time of 1:36.497 to move from 14th to 11thplace. 

Russell then emerged on the red-banded tyres and he did find a significant gain, shaving almost five tenths off his Medium tyres time to rise to the top of the order with a new best time of 1:34.015.

Hamilton slotted into P2, two tenths off his team-mate but the seven-time champion was bounced out by Sainz who claimed second place, just 0.090s off Hamilton. Leclerc, meanwhile took fourth. 

Norris was finding more time, however, and with a little over 25 minutes remaining the McLaren driver leapfrogged all four with a lap of 1:33.836, 0.179s clear of Hamilton. The Mercedes driver went for another attempt and he reclaimed P1 just 0.011s ahead of the McLaren driver. 

The session was then briefly halted by red flags for Alex Albon. The Williams driver had spent a lengthy spell in the garage as his team worked on an issue with the fuel system, but almost as soon as he was sent back out on track he slowed and then ground to a halt at Turn 6. 

After a short, four-minute delay running resumed and the bulk of the field switched back to Medium tyres for longer run data gathering. It left Hamilton in top spot, a hundredth of a second clear of Norris with Russell in third place ahead of the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz. 

Pierre Gasly, on the podium in Brazil, gave Alpine hope of another strong weekend with fifth place, while Haas, just three points behind the French squad in the Constructors’ standings took P6 with Kevin Magnussen and eighth with Nico Hülkenberg. Dividing the American team’s drivers was McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. 

Yuki Tsunoda finished the session in P10 for RB, who lie just two points behind Haas, and the final top 10 place went to Kick Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas. 

It was a disappointing session for Red Bull, however, with Verstappen finishing a lowly 17th, just over three hundredths of a second ahead of Colapinto. Sergio Pérez, meanwhile, finished in 19th, 2.2s off Hamilton’s P1 time. 

2024 FIA Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:33.825 25 237.928
2 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:33.836 0.011 25 237.900
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:34.015 0.190 29 237.447
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:34.105 0.280 29 237.220
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:34.313 0.488 29 236.696
6 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:34.651 0.826 30 235.851
7 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:34.686 0.861 20 235.764
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:34.798 0.973 26 235.485
9 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 1:34.818 0.993 24 235.436
10 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 1:34.997 1.172 23 234.992
11 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari 1:35.020 1.195 28 234.935
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:35.221 1.396 26 234.439
13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:35.251 1.426 27 234.366
14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:35.440 1.615 25 233.901
15 Liam Lawson RB/Honda RBPT 1:35.671 1.846 24 233.337
16 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari 1:35.765 1.940 28 233.108
17 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:35.834 2.009 25 232.940
18 Franco Colapinto Williams/Mercedes 1:35.868 2.043 30 232.857
19 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:36.055 2.230 25 232.404
20 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:39.629 5.804 4 224.067