Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has led opening practice for Formula 1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, besting Alex Albon and the two Red Bulls.
Leclerc’s soft-tyre run pf 1m34.802s in the final 15 minutes of the one-hour session was enough to hold off Williams Alex Albon, with Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda making a rare appearance in front of team-mate Max Verstappen, while the McLaren pair occupied sixth and seventh.
With the Las Vegas schedule being brought forward by two hours in its third year, the first of three practice sessions started just after sunset around the gambling paradise’s famous Strip.
Given the 6.2km street circuit is only used once a year, the session got off to a slow start as drivers battled with extremely low grip, using low downforce set-ups that further made their cars tricky to drive.
Pierre Gasly and Gabriel Bortoleto were among the drivers going too into the run-off area early on, while world champion Verstappen led the early running which was largely completed on medium tyres across the board.
After a mid-session lull Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and then Leclerc used Pirelli’s softer C5 compound to climb to the first two spots, with the latter leading by virtue of a 1m35.121s.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images
Verstappen managed to go marginally quicker 1m35.109s before Leclerc reclaimed top spot with a 1m34.802s, dipping below last year’s leading FP1 time.
Albon was a surprise second for Williams, 0.166s in arrears, with Tsunoda a strong third for Red Bull ahead of Verstappen.
Carlos Sainz completed a strong session for Williams in fifth, while Lando Norris recovered from two off-track excursions at Turn 12 to take sixth ahead of Isack Hadjar and title rival Oscar Piastri.
McLaren’s low-key session further underlined pre-event expectations that McLaren may well struggle to compete for victory this weekend on a circuit that doesn’t reward its strengths.
Behind Piastri, George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli pushed Hamilton outside the top 10 in ninth and 10th, the Mercedes duo not showing its true hand on a track that should suit the squad’s cars.
Read Also:
F1 Las Vegas GP – FP1 results
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