F1 Las Vegas GP: Hamilton fastest from Norris

Lewis Hamilton ended Thursday with a clean sweep of Formula 1 practice sessions at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and beat Lando Norris by 0.011s in FP2.

The Mercedes driver set a 1m33.825s on soft tyres before a brief red flag called for the stranded Alex Albon, who had struggled throughout the session with fuel system problems.

Versus the low-grip conditions in FP1, it took less time for the drivers to get up to speed; Hamilton got within a second of his first-session best on his opening run with the medium tyre, although this was supplanted by Lando Norris’ 1m35.406s.

George Russell was the first to go faster than the FP1 times while still on mediums; the Briton set a 1m34.979s as the new benchmark, which Charles Leclerc overturned by almost 0.4s.

The Monegasque then set a 1m34.476s to demonstrate the further track evolution, capping off the early medium runs.

Russell then kicked off with the soft tyres and logged a 1m34.015s to go fastest, a time that was two-tenths clear of Hamilton’s first effort – and the two Mercedes drivers were subsequently split by Carlos Sainz in the order.

Norris went quicker and took the times below the 1m34s – setting a 1m33.836s to throw McLaren’s hat into the early ring, although Hamilton then nudged ahead by 0.01s to go fastest.

The soft-tyre runs were then put on pause when the red flag was flown for Albon; the Williams driver was stranded in the pits for the majority of the session with a fuel system issue and, 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.

Norris hence split the Mercedes as Russell kept hold of third, 0.09s ahead of Sainz in the final timing order. This ensured the top four were all within 0.3s, a much finer margin compared to the earlier session’s near-second gap.

Leclerc was fifth fastest over Pierre Gasly, as Kevin Magnussen demonstrated Haas’ strong pace with seventh overall. 

Oscar Piastri was eighth in the FP2 order, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda – RB finding more pace versus its efforts in the earlier practice session.

This contrasted with the lead Red Bull squad which only managed 17th and 19th as Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez set their best times on the medium tyre.

F1 Las Vegas GP – FP2…