Leclerc leads Ferrari 1-2 in the second practice for Las Vegas Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc set the fastest time, clocking in at 1:35.265 seconds, 0.517 seconds ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz in a significantly postponed second practice session for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the pace in the postponed and extended second practice session at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, beating his teammate Carlos Sainz as drivers started to become accustomed to the challenging strip circuit. 

F1 officials had to deal with perhaps the most humiliating moments in the recent history of the sport when they had to wrap up practice for the highly anticipated Las Vegas Grand Prix at four in the morning with empty grandstands.

Following months of anticipation for the Las Vegas Grand Prix race weekend, the first practice was called off after just eight minutes of action. This was after an incident that involved Carlos Sainz hitting a manhole cover damaging his Ferrari.

The second practice was significantly delayed as track officials worked to reinforce and repair all of the drain covers on the Vegas street circuit.

Fans were unfortunately escorted away from the grandstands and all fan zones, which made the first day of the Las Vegas GP event very challenging.

The drivers had the opportunity to experience the Vegas GP circuit for ninety minutes during an extended FP2 session after the unfortunate conclusion of the FP1 session.

Several drivers ventured deep into the Turn 14 runoff areas at the end of the 6.2km circuit’s lengthy back straight, as they adjusted to the circuit’s layout and the chilly weather.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finished the first flying lap on the soft tires with 1’43.832, but his teammate Lando Norris was unable to complete his first lap after his car went into “limp home” mode.

The McLaren team called both cars into the pits in order to address a possible issue that was later determined to be a cooling issue with Norris’ car.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen shot to the top of the timesheets with a time of 1’41.905, after starting on the medium compound tires. Later Ferrari duo Sainz and teammate Leclerc traded places at the top of the order. Leclerc recorded a time of 1’38.9 on the soft tire, bettering his time from the earlier, abbreviated session.

Turn 12’s tight left-hander proved to be especially challenging as many drivers including Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso made it down the runoff on entry.

Ferrari outperformed the world champions on the C5 compound after Red Bull immediately switched to soft tires and began to gain ground. Leclerc placed first on the leaderboard while Lewis Hamilton was only three thousandths of a second behind.

Alonso briefly pushed Aston Martin to the lead, shortly after the first half of the session had passed. However, with the advantage of two consecutive warm-up laps on his soft tires, Leclerc lowered the best time to 1’35.265, as Sainz was half a second slower his teammate.

Longer runs were conducted in the latter part of the session to collect data for Saturday’s race. The leading drivers concentrated on running on the medium, which meant there weren’t a lot of changes at the top of the order.

The practice ended with a fully uninterrupted extended 90-minute session marked by the waving of the chequered flag. Leclerc had the fastest time, followed by teammate Sainz in second place with his fellow countryman Alonso in third.

Sergio Perez was the fastest Red Bull driver finishing fourth while his teammate Verstappen was down in sixth place as Valtteri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo split the Bulls in fifth.

Nico Hulkenberg placed seventh in his Haas while Lance Stroll finished eighth in the sister Aston Martin followed by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in ninth as Williams’ Alexander Albon rounded out the top ten.

Las Vegas Grand Prix Free Practice 2 Results