McLaren’s Lando Norris topped a double red-flag disrupted Thursday Practice for 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Norris overcame setup challenges which saw him finish sixth in FP1 topped by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to recover with the fastest time in FP2, albeit in a session disrupted by two red flags for a loose manhole cover.
FP1
Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar was the first driver to hit the track and set 1m 46.062 as the initial benchmark time on medium tyres in the fifth minute, which led to a flurry of activity across the following 11 minutes as eight drivers including himself exchanged the fastest lap time.
Verstappen eventually took control with 1m 36.493 in the 16th minute on his first flier which he then lowered to 1m 36.043, only to get into a brief exchange of fastest laps with Leclerc before he set the pace at halfway mark with 1m 35.776 set in the 25th minute.
Lewis Hamilton was the first soft-tyre runner in the qualifying simulations to displace the reigning world champion with 1m 35.561, but Leclerc went 0.280 seconds faster than his Ferrari teammate, before he found a further 0.160s to lower the benchmark to 1m 35.121 on his second flier.
Verstappen however responded with 1m 35.109 in the 43rd minute but got beaten by his own teammate, Yuki Tsunoda who posted 1m 35.071 just two minutes later, in a rare positive FP1 for the under-pressure Japanese driver.
Leclerc ultimately finished fastest with 1m 34.802 ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon by 0.166s after the latter had endured a slow start to the session.
McLaren’s Lando Norris recovered from a skirmish with the walls to finish the session sixth fastest and ahead of Hadjar, after the Frenchman left it until his last lap to split the McLaren pair with Oscar Piastri in eighth.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1m 34.802 |
| 2 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.166 |
| 3 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | + 0.269 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.307 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | + 0.377 |
| 6 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.456 |
| 7 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | + 0.497 |
| 8 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.648 |
| 9 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.732 |
| 10 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | + 0.736 |
| 11 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.759 |
| 12 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.787 |
| 13 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | + 0.907 |
| 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.944 |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.092 |
| 16 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | + 1.188 |
| 17 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | + 1.321 |
| 18 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | + 1.358 |
| 19 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | + 1.596 |
| 20 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | + 1.967 |
FP2
Amidst light drizzle moments before the session, the grid opted to wait in their pit garages until Gasly slowly led the pack out and set 1m 50.119 as the initial benchmark in the 10th minute which led to a flurry of changes of fastest laps as the times quickly tumbled to more representative levels.
Russell soon set the pace with 1m 35.066 in the 17th minute but Norris displaced him with 1m 34.713 just three minutes later, and the pair subsequently exchanged fastest laps as Norris lowered the benchmark to 1m 33.943 in the 25th minute.
Leclerc two minutes later posted 1m 33.763 to sit fastest at the halfway mark as the medium tyre runs came to a close.
Once the soft-tyre qualifying simulations began, only Hadjar and Lawson initially banked a quality lap time early into their runs to go second and third respectively.
Norris however went quickest with 1m 33.601 in the 37th minute to displace Antonelli by 0.029s after the Italian initially went fastest just seconds earlier.
The session however was nearly brought to a premature end with 21 minutes left in the session due to a loose manhole cover at turn 17, but resumed with five minutes left with the Sauber pair of Bortoleto and Hulkenberg leading everyone out onto the circuit.
Leclerc however came to a stop at turn 5 due to a gearbox issue and didn’t participate in the last four minutes of the session, which was red flagged just over a minute later due to a repeated manhole cover issue with nobody able to beat Norris’ lap time.
Leclerc, Russell, Verstappen, Hamilton, Gasly, Sainz, Piastri, Tsunoda, Colapinto, Bearman and Ocon consequently set their quickest FP2 times on the medium tyre, whilst Bortoleto’s fastest lap time was done on the hard tyre unlike the eight drivers who delivered soft-tyre timed laps.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m 33.601 |
| 2 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | + 0.029 |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.161 |
| 4 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | + 0.277 |
| 5 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | + 0.291 |
| 6 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | + 0.299 |
| 7 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.435 |
| 8 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.465 |
| 9 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.503 |
| 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.525 |
| 11 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.589 |
| 12 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.771 |
| 13 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | + 0.833 |
| 14 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.891 |
| 15 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | + 1.090 |
| 16 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | + 1.222 |
| 17 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | + 1.384 |
| 18 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 1.410 |
| 19 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | + 1.626 |
| 20 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | + 1.897 |
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