Lewis Hamilton bested Mercedes teammate George Russell to top spot in a treacherously slippery but uninterrupted first practice session at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Las Vegas Strip Circuit started in extremely low-grip condition. Large swaths of the track were coated in dust, particularly down the Strip, which had been open to public traffic only hours before the start of the session.
The dustiness was compounded by cool early evening conditions, with track and ambient temperatures hovering at around 60 degrees F when practice began and dropping gently through the hour.
The tricky conditions prompted many minor mistakes, particularly in the big braking zone into the final chicane at the south end of Las Vegas Boulevard, with several drivers locking up taking to the escape road.
Unusually, some drivers locked the loaded outside tire into the left-handed corner, underlining how little grip was on offer in the first hour of running.
BIG lock-up for Verstappen 😶🌫️
Cool conditions and a slick, dusty surface are testing all the drivers’ skills out there 😮#F1 #LasVegasGP pic.twitter.com/LZJ65guXiZ
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 22, 2024
Despite the slipperiness, the session was completed without red flags, banishing the sport’s bad memories of the called-off first practice session of 2023 owing to circuit safety issues.
The lack of starting grip also meant that the circuit improved rapidly as driver re-acquainted themselves with the street circuit. Cars that were sliding through the corners — Liam Lawson likened it to “driving in the wet” — looked planted in the final minutes, when Mercedes chose to set its first flying laps on soft tires.
Russell and Hamilton traded fastest times, the former rocketing to top spot first before Hamilton pinched the place back.
Russell’s second flyer moved him back into first place before a lap completed after the checkered flag, comprising two purple sectors, finally rotated Hamilton into top spot with a benchmark time of 1m35.001s, beating the sister car by 0.396s.
Notably, Hamilton’s time was 0.264s faster than the best Thursday practice time set last year, speaking to how quickly the circuit improved through the session.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was fastest among the group of drivers who set their fastest times earlier in the session, but the Briton ended up 0.953s off the late pace set by the Mercedes duo. Charles Leclerc matched him closely, the Ferrari driver lapping just 0.053s slower to take fourth.
Max Verstappen complained of a recurrent steering wheel problem in the second half of the hour, telling the Red Bull pit wall that it would seemingly randomly disconnect electronically. The issue didn’t appear to hamper his lap time, however, with the Dutchman 0.031s behind Leclerc.
Carlos Sainz was almost 0.2s adrift running an experimental Ferrari floor, though the team said it wouldn’t be raced, with the part designed to correlate data from the wind tunnel.
Fernando Alonso was seventh for Aston Martin ahead of Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren, the Australian having been temporarily restricted to his garage after bizarrely being unable to switch off his car thanks to an apparent electrical issue.
Pierre Gasly circulated to ninth ahead of Sergio Perez in 10th. Kevin Magnussen was 11th ahead of Lance Stroll, Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg.
Valtteri Bottas was 16th fastest with a new energy store installed in his Stake Sauber, earning him a five-place grid penalty for the grand prix.
Franco Colapinto followed in 17th ahead of Zhou Guanyu, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson.
