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Charles Leclerc is being reminded to watch the white line at pit entry as Franco Colapinto is shown the black-and-white flag for crossing it without pitting. Alexander Albon now gets the same.
“The front-left doesn’t look great,” reports Piastri. “Lots of graining.” Stallard asks: “Understood, Do you want to try one more lap or is it finished?” “No it’s not finished,” Piastri replies.
Lewis Hamilton leads a Mercedes one-to at the moment with a 1’36.927 on mediums. Everyone is on the same compound bar the soft-shod Red Bull duo.
Valtteri Bottas will have a grid penalty for Sunday’s grand prix as he has taken his fourth energy store of the year.
Lap times are improving very quickly as drivers clean the dust from the track. Kevin Magnussen, back in the Haas in he antepenultimate appearance as an F1 driver, does a 1’40.407 which is almost four seconds quicker than the fastest time a short while ago. Meanwhile Norris goes wide at turn 14.
The track condition is quite poor, drivers kicking up a huge amount of dust, especially as they approach turn 14 at the end of The Strip.
Max Verstappen sets the early pace with a 1’44.239 but he’s now behind Russell and Hulkenberg. Tsunoda complains he’s being held up by cars ahead.
“It feels like I’m driving in the wet, honestly,” adds Liam Lawson, whose only prior experience of this track is a couple of tours in a Mustang during last year’s event.
First practice is go at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit. “Very slippery already,” reports Oscar Piastri.
There are no changes to the usual driver line-up for first practice today – all 20 drivers want to take full advantage of the opportunity to familiarise themselves at this street circuit. Of course this session was badly disrupted last year when a loose valve cover caused serious damage to Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Ferrari – and was also hit by Esteban Ocon’s Alpine.
First practice for the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix is coming up next.
2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix
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