Leclerc heads Ferrari one-two after extended Las Vegas practice

Charles Leclerc headed an extended second practice session in Las Vegas ahead of Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr to end the first day of running.

The pace-setter’s quickest time of a 1’35.265 was half a second quicker than his team mate. Fernando Alonso went third fastest as the delayed second practice session passed without ncident.

Following a delay of two-and-a-half hours due to extensive work to secure the many drain covers along the circuit, the second practice session began at 2.30am – the earliest time an official grand prix session has ever started. Due to the majority of first practice being cancelled, practice was extended to 90 minutes to recover some of the time lost.

Oscar Piastri completed the first flying lap with a 1’43.832 on the soft tyres, but McLaren team mate Lando Norris could not finish his first push lap of the session as his car fell into ‘limp home’ mode. Both McLarens were called into the pit lane so the team could address a potential problem, later deemed to be a cooling concern to Norris’ car.

World champion Max Verstappen headed out on the medium compound tyres and quickly moved to the top of the times with a 1’41.905. Then the Ferraris of Sainz – whose car suffered heavy damage when he hit a loose water valve cover in the opening practice session – and team mate Leclerc took turns at the top of the order. Leclerc, who was also quickest in the curtailed earlier session, posted a 1’38.9 on the soft tyre.

As to be expected with a brand new street circuit, drivers had their challenges finding the limit around the six-kilometre course. The tight left-hander of turn 12 proved a particularly difficult spot, with many drivers escaping down the run off on entry including both Red Bulls of Verstappen and Sergio Perez and Aston Martin’s Alonso.

Red Bull fitted the soft tyres for the first time and immediately improved, but Ferrari who went faster than the world champions on the C5 compound. Leclerc sat on the top of the times with a 1’36.660 with Lewis Hamilton just three-thousandths of a second behind him in seconds.

Just after half of the session had elapsed, Alonso briefly put Aston Martin to the top of the times. However, both the Ferrari and Red Bull teams sent their two drivers out on fresh sets of soft tyres, with Leclerc lowering the best time to a 1’35.265 with the benefit of two consecutive warm up laps for his soft tyres. Team mate Sainz was the closest to his best time, but was half a second slower than his team mate.

The later phase of the session was dedicated to longer runs to gather data for the grand prix on Saturday. There were few improvements at the top of the order, as drivers in the top half of the field focused on running on the medium compound tyres.

At the end of the 90 minutes, the chequered flag flew to signal the end of a fully uninterrupted extended practice. Leclerc ended the session fastest ahead of team mate Sainz in second, with Alonso in third just ahead of his compatriot.

Perez was fourth and the fastest Red Bull driver, with Valtteri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo quicker than Verstappen in sixth. Nico Hulkenberg put his Haas in seventh, with Lance Stroll eighth in the second Aston Martin. Lewis Hamilton was ninth for Mercedes, with Alexander Albon completing the top ten for Williams.

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2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix second practice result

P.	#	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-23	1’35.265		39
2	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-23	1’35.782	0.517	39
3	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’35.793	0.528	38
4	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’36.085	0.820	36
5	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’36.129	0.864	35
6	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’36.183	0.918	37
7	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’36.489	1.224	33
8	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’36.496	1.231	40
9	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W14	1’36.663	1.398	42
10	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’36.688	1.423	42
11	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’36.864	1.599	33
12	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W14	1’36.890	1.625	37
13	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’36.917	1.652	37
14	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’36.987	1.722	35
15	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’37.134	1.869	33
16	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’37.241	1.976	37
17	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’37.412	2.147	41
18	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’37.656	2.391	36
19	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’37.680	2.415	40
20	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’38.140	2.875	42

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2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix

• Tost blames track inspection oversight for Sainz’s damage in Las Vegas
• Hard to repeat “rare” combination of factors behind Vegas shunt – Norris
• Las Vegas Grand Prix “got a lot more hate than it deserved” – Sargeant
• Williams’ “incredible” Vegas qualifying made us “poor” in race – Vowles
• Piastri is first rookie to take two fastest laps in a season since Hamilton

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