Brits Dominate Practice for 2024 Las Vegas GP

Lewis Hamilton headed Lando Norris and George Russell as the Brits dominated Friday Practice for 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Hamilton topped both sessions as Russell finished second in an one-two finish for Mercedes in FP1, with Norris third.

Norris however split his compatriots in FP2 as he finished just 0.011 seconds shy of Hamilton, with the trio split by 0.190s in a solid day of running across the field.

 

FP1

McLaren’s Osar Piastri was first out on track but it was Sauber’s Guanyu Zhou who set the initial pace with 1m 55.626, only for Kevin Magnussen, Max Verstappen, Russell, Charles Leclerc and Hamilton to trade fastest laps.

Mercedes soon showed their hand as Russell and Hamilton soon traded the quickest lap times, with Hamilton sat top at the half-hour mark on 1m 36.927 as everyone ran the medium tyre except Verstappen and Sergio Perez who opted for soft tyres.

Once everyone else began their soft-tyre runs, McLaren’s Norris set the pace with 14 minutes left, having posted 1m 35.954 to go top from Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Mercedes left their soft-tyre runs until the last five minutes which saw Russell trade fastest laps with Hamilton, yet the latter emerged quickest with 1m 35.001 literally at the checkered flag.

Russell finished 0.396 seconds down in second as Norris rounded out a British top three, whilst Williams’ Franco Colapinto was the only driver who failed to improve his time on the soft tyres.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m 35.001
2	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.396
3	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.953
4	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 1.006
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 1.037
6	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 1.217
7	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 1.261
8	Piastri	McLaren	+ 1.450
9	Gasly	Alpine	+ 1.477
10	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+ 1.535
11	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+ 1.810
12	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1.816
13	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 1.947
14	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 2.151
15	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	+ 2.199
16	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	+ 2.764
17	Franco Colapinto	Williams	+ 3.024
18	Guanyu Zhou	Sauber	+ 3.349
19	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	+ 3.573
20	Liam Lawson	RB	+ 3.729

 

FP2

Alpine’s Gasly and Ocon were first out on track with Gasly the first to set a time of 1m 46.595 as the benchmark, which quickly got beaten by several drivers as Hamilton set the quickest lap of 1m 35.805 in the eighth minute.

The seven-time champion’s time though was in response to Russell’s fastest lap but his teammate responded with 1m 34.979, only for Leclerc and Sainz to head the medium-tyre times for Ferrari as the Monegasque lowered the benchmark to 1m 34.476.

Russell was the first driver to switch to softs and posted 1m 34.015 in the 26th minute but his time was beaten by Norris eight minutes later, as his compatriot found 0.179s to set 1m 33.836 as the time to beat.

Hamilton had sat fourth once the frontrunners had done a soft-tyre flier but on his second attempt, he produced 1m 38.825 to top the session from Norris and Russell as just 0.190s covered the British trio.

Verstappen and Perez finished 17th and 19th respectively after they failed to set a soft-tyre lap time, as did Albon who caused a brief red flag due to a fuel system issue which limited his running in the session.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m 33.825
2	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.011
3	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.190
4	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 0.280
5	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.488
6	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 0.826
7	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+ 0.861
8	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 0.973
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	+ 0.993
10	Yuki Tsunoda	RB	+ 1.172
11	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	+ 1.195
12	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 1.396
13	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1.426
14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 1.615
15	Liam Lawson	RB	+ 1.846
16	Guanyu Zhou	Sauber	+ 1.940
17	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 2.009
18	Franco Colapinto	Williams	+ 2.043
19	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+ 2.230
20	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 5.804