LAS VEGAS GP – Lewis Hamilton fastest a hundredth ahead of Lando Norris in second practice
Lewis Hamilton was fastest in second practice for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Mercedes setting a 38.825 to go a hundredth faster than Lando Norris. The Englishman had an encouraging Thursday evening topping both sessions, in the second session Hamilton set his fastest time just before the red flag.
Norris spilt the two Mercedes going one place better than he was in FP1, the McLaren driver going just over a tenth and three quarters ahead of George Russell as the three Englishman once again locked out the top three.
Grip was much improved during the second session which allowed the three Mercedes-powered cars to go ahead of the Ferrari’s. But the colder conditions and a red flag still made it tricky for drivers to unlock the best lap times.
Carlos Sainz was fourth going two-tenths faster than his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc who admitted that it was “not a great day for us and it seems to have been tricky for everyone else as well. We are not as strong as we expected to be coming into the weekend.” Sainz was a quarter of a second off the outright pace set by Hamilton as the Spaniard went over a tenth ahead of Pierre Gasly.
Alpine looking to build on the podium in Sao Paulo following a tough season on and off track to end the season on a high, but Gasly looked hindered by traffic and was on used soft tyres during his attempt.
Kevin Magnussen put his Haas seventh, the Dane was three and a half hundredths behind Gasly and ahead of Oscar Piastri by two hundredths. Nico Hulkenberg was ninth ahead of Yuki Tsunoda by almost two-tenths.
It however was not a trouble-free hour, after a delay in getting out on track trying to fix a fuel systems issue, Alex Albon stopped out on track with the issue. when he got on track, he managed just a handful of laps before his FW46 ground to a halt. After green flag running resumed, most chose to focus on their higher-fuel runs on the medium tyre – prompting no further changes in the order.
Valtteri Bottas missed out on the top ten by just over two hundredths, the Sauber driver going two-tenths faster than Esteban Ocon. Ocon will take a five-place grid penalty for a engine component change, but the Frenchman was nearly two-tenths faster than the two Aston Martin’s. Lance Stroll two tenths faster than teammate Fernando Alonso.
Liam Lawson was two-tenths behind teammate Tsunoda, and nearly a tenth faster than Guanyu Zhou. Max Verstappen had to settle for eighteenth, the three-time champion two seconds off the pace but the question is whether the grip issue was circuit-related or the same issue he has complained about through the second half of the season. But like teammate Sergio Perez they didn’t do a soft run.
Franco Colapinto split the Red Bull’s; he was three hundredths behind Verstappen and ahead of Perez by just under two-tenths. While the Argentine’s teammate Alex Albon completed the field, but it looks like the British-Thai driver failed to do a reprehensive lap as he was three and half seconds behind Perez.