After a frustrating Brazilian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton had a promising start to his Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend by going quickest in first practice.
Hamilton topped the times ahead of Mercedes team mate George Russell, with Lando Norris third fastest for McLaren.
Although the 6:30pm start time was the closest any Las Vegas Grand Prix session has been held to day time, the track was still covered by the night sky with temperatures falling below 15C. The cool track, covered with an strikingly visible level of dust, offered minimal grip to drivers as they took to the track for the first time in the weekend.
Liam Lawson described the slippery surface as like “driving in the wet”. Max Verstappen and Zhou Guanyu both locked up heavily under braking at the end of the Strip into turn 14, adding thick plumes of white tyre smoke to the dust already being kicked up by their cars.
Despite the tricky conditions, drivers managed to keep their cars out of the many barriers lining the six kilometre circuit, with the session running without a single interruption. Drivers mixed and matched between the mediums and the soft compounds through the session, with Hamilton putting in the best time of the hour with a 1’35.001.
Russell was four tenths slower than his team mate, while Norris was half a second off in third. Charles Leclerc was fourth fastest, while Verstappen was fifth despite complaining about a steering wheel connection problem through the second half of the session.
Carlos Sainz Jnr was sixth ahead of Fernando Alonso, while Oscar Piastri was eighth despite suffering an unusual problem midway through the session where he returned to the pits but was unable to switch off his power unit. The McLaren was pushed back into the garage with the power unit still running, but the team found a way to kill the engine and return him to the track later.
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Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez completed the top ten. All drivers completed at least 23 laps each, Russell managing the most with 29.
2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix first practice result
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2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix
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