George Russell ensured Mercedes headed all three practice sessions for the Las Vegas Grand Prix by topping the final hour of running on Friday.
His quickest lap in the W15 was two tenths of a second quicker than Oscar Piastri managed in the final session before qualifying, with Carlos Sainz Jnr in third.After a cold and dusty start to the event on Thursday, conditions for the final practice session were slightly warmer than the second. But with the temperature certain to drop during the hour and ahead of qualifying, teams were reluctant to send their cars out on a slippery track in conditions that would not be representative of the race.
Aside from Aston Martin and Mercedes, who sent both of their cars out to scrub sets of hard tyres, Red Bull was the only team to attempt a run in the early minutes. However Sergio Perez was several seconds off Thursday’s pace and abandoned his run after complaining there was no point continuing in the conditions.
After a period of quiet, Red Bull eventually sent both their drivers out again, starting a run of cars taking to the circuit. After showing underwhelming pace on Thursday, Verstappen appeared to struggle again on the medium tyres, running off at turn five multiple times and complaining that his car was “undriveable”.
Following a longer spell in the garage, Verstappen rejoined the session later on soft tyres. He reported being much happier with the grip levels from the car even on the out-lap and posting what was the new fastest lap of the session.
But after his rivals completed their own qualifying simulation runs, the championship leader was quickly demoted to fifth place. George Russell posted the quickest time of all with a 1’33.570, two tenths of a second quicker than Oscar Piastri’s McLaren.
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With just under 10 minutes remaining, the session was stopped with a red flag when Lance Stroll was told to stop his car as he turned onto the Strip. Practice was resumed with only a minute remaining, allowing most of the field back out to take the chequered flag and attempt a practice start, but Perez failed to reach the pit exit line in time and was unable to join the others.
Russell therefore completed the session fastest ahead of Piastri, with Sainz behind in third. Lando Norris was a tenth quicker than rival Verstappen in fourth ahead of Lewis Hamilton and the two Williams of Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto. Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly were the final drivers inside the top ten.
2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix third practice result
| P. | # | Driver | Team | Model | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | W15 | 1’33.570 | |
| 2 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren-Mercedes | MCL38 | 1’33.785 | 0.215 |
| 3 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | SF-24 | 1’33.918 | 0.348 |
| 4 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | MCL38 | 1’34.008 | 0.438 |
| 5 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-Honda RBPT | RB20 | 1’34.137 | 0.567 |
| 6 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | W15 | 1’34.341 | 0.771 |
| 7 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams-Mercedes | FW46 | 1’34.407 | 0.837 |
| 8 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | Williams-Mercedes | FW46 | 1’34.723 | 1.153 |
| 9 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | VF-24 | 1’34.883 | 1.313 |
| 10 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine-Renault | A524 | 1’34.905 | 1.335 |
| 11 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas-Ferrari | VF-24 | 1’34.908 | 1.338 |
| 12 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | SF-24 | 1’34.941 | 1.371 |
| 13 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull-Honda RBPT | RB20 | 1’35.061 | 1.491 |
| 14 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine-Renault | A524 | 1’35.460 | 1.890 |
| 15 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin-Mercedes | AMR24 | 1’35.938 | 2.368 |
| 16 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB-Honda RBPT | 01 | 1’36.215 | 2.645 |
| 17 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber-Ferrari | C44 | 1’36.412 | 2.842 |
| 18 | 30 | Liam Lawson | RB-Honda RBPT | 01 | 1’36.544 | 2.974 |
| 19 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin-Mercedes | AMR24 | 1’36.950 | 3.380 |
| 20 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Sauber-Ferrari | C44 | 1’36.988 | 3.418 |
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2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix
- “Disappointing” Las Vegas GP performance prompts ticketing changes for 2025 race
- Vowles clarifies Colapinto’s claim he was concussed in Las Vegas crash
- Norris lost title because McLaren weren’t competitive enough early on – Stella
- Ferrari are now in their longest-ever championship drought
- F1 “was trying too hard” in first year at Las Vegas – Sainz
SteveR (@stever)
23rd November 2024, 4:35
What a soul-less travesty of a mockery of a sham this venue is. The track is soulless; if you’ve ever been so unfortunate as to have visited Vegas you know this city has no soul. This race is only about money; at no time have the seats been shown as they would reveal the lack of interest in this race.
I’m a Yank. There are no reports, coverage, or discussion in the US media of this ‘race’. Please, please give us races on circuits that have some connection to reality, with grass and light and soul instead of concrete tunnels driven though after midnight.
Mayrton
23rd November 2024, 7:02
+1
Jere (@jerejj)
23rd November 2024, 5:02
Don’t you mean the timing line rather than the pit exit line, which is all that matters.
Btw, how could anyone beat the chequered flag if a minute was left with average lap time range of 1m33+ seconds?