Practice report
Formula 1 Las Vegas GP
F1 Las Vegas GP: Leclerc leads Ferrari 1-2 in delayed second practice
Charles Leclerc led a Ferrari 1-2 in the extended and delayed FP2 session at Formula 1's 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, following the water valve cover issues that blighted FP1.
Alex Kalinauckas
Edited: Nov 18, 2023, 4:59 AM
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Fernando Alonso finished third, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen down in sixth.
The session got underway 2.5 hours later than planned following repairs to the track surface along the city's famous Strip following Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Alpine's Esteban Ocon suffering big damage in an FP1.
FP2 took place in front of no fans after the police, on behalf of the race organiser, F1 itself, had to clear all fan areas including grandstands due to security staff shift patterns changing.
In the opening phase of what was an extended 90-minute session to make up for the earlier lost running, the pack was split across using the soft and medium tyres as they examined how many laps were needed to prepare the tyres for a flying lap while completing lengthy opening stints.
Several drivers had stints at the head of the times as the track evolution factor kicked in with more rubber being laid down and the tyres finally heating up on the smooth new surface.
That meant the times tumbled from Oscar Piastri's first timed lap of 1m43.832s to Verstappen's 1m38.209s by the end of the opening 15 minutes, with Leclerc sitting 0.116s adrift of the world champion at this stage, but having run the softs.
After a lull in action up to the 25-minute mark, Leclerc headed back out on the softs, with Verstappen soon joining him on the same compound.
Neither driver improved on their first attempts on new softs, the pair having a bizarre incident heading down the Strip at the end of preparation tours when Verstappen was "racing already", per Leclerc, as he moved past the Ferrari into Turn 14.
This left Sergio Perez and then Sainz to nip ahead on the timing boards, with Perez posting a 1m37.807s before Sainz beat him with a 1m36.984s – after the Spaniard had shot to the top, briefly, during the initial running with his first lap in his repaired SF-23.
Verstappen's second attempt at a softs flier went wrong when he locked up into Turn 12 and had to bail into the escape road, while Leclerc demoted Perez of second.
As the drivers continued to circulate for lengthy stints, Verstappen eventually beat his medium-shod initial person best to run adrift of the Ferrari drivers, which by the 35-minute mark was Leclerc ahead with a 1m36.660s at the top of the times.
Five minutes later, Hamilton moved into second place – just 0.003s down on Leclerc's top time – with Sainz and the two Red Bull cars back in the pits again.
Before he also came in ahead of the halfway point, Leclerc posted a purple first sector before losing time through the lap's other two segments and wound up 0.8s down on his leading personal best.
While the initial frontrunners made adjustments to their cars, Aston Martin's Alonso shuffled Leclerc back to second by 0.003s himself thanks to his 1m36.657s post as the clock hit the 50-minute point.
He then pitted while the other frontrunners returned to the track, Sainz and then Verstappen taking over at the top spot before Leclerc blasted to a 1m35.696s with 55 minutes completed.
Verstappen cut the gap to Leclerc, but he was then shuffled back by Sainz, Perez and Valtteri Bottas, before Alonso shot back to second and Leclerc improved the benchmark to a 1m35.265s as 65 minutes ticked by.
By this stage, the Mercedes drivers had switched to the typical long runs that end FP2 using the medium tyres, with Verstappen soon doing likewise on the softs.
Soon enough, the Ferrari drivers, Alonso and co were on high fuel runs, which cemented the top 10 as Leclerc, Sainz, Alonso, Perez, Bottas, Verstappen, Nico Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll, Lewis Hamilton and Alex Albon.
Lando Norris finished 11th having jumped up from last ahead of the closing stages, a gain that followed him having to pit for repairs during the early stages to address a cooling sensor problem.
Many drivers had lock-ups and offs into the massive runoff areas at Turns 5, 12 and 14, but it appeared as if the track surface repairs held up as the session ran to its elongated duration without interruption.
Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info
Driver Info
Main Information Additional Data
Cla Driver # Chassis Engine Laps Time Interval km/h 1 C. Leclerc Ferrari 16
Ferrari Ferrari 39
1'35.265
2 C. Sainz Ferrari 55
Ferrari Ferrari 39
+0.517
1'35.782
0.517 3 F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing 14
Aston Martin Mercedes 38
+0.528
1'35.793
0.011 4 S. Perez Red Bull Racing 11
Red Bull Red Bull 36
+0.820
1'36.085
0.292 5 V. Bottas Alfa Romeo 77
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 36
+0.864
1'36.129
0.044 6 M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1
Red Bull Red Bull 37
+0.918
1'36.183
0.054 7 N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team 27
Haas Ferrari 33
+1.224
1'36.489
0.306 8 L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing 18
Aston Martin Mercedes 41
+1.231
1'36.496
0.007 9 L. Hamilton Mercedes 44
Mercedes Mercedes 42
+1.398
1'36.663
0.167 10 A. Albon Williams 23
Williams Mercedes 42
+1.423
1'36.688
0.025 11 L. Norris McLaren 4
McLaren Mercedes 33
+1.599
1'36.864
0.176 12 G. Russell Mercedes 63
Mercedes Mercedes 37
+1.625
1'36.890
0.026 13 K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team 20
Haas Ferrari 37
+1.652
1'36.917
0.027 14 O. Piastri McLaren 81
McLaren Mercedes 35
+1.722
1'36.987
0.070 15 P. Gasly Alpine 10
Alpine Renault 33
+1.869
1'37.134
0.147 16 E. Ocon Alpine 31
Alpine Renault 37
+1.976
1'37.241
0.107 17 Y. Tsunoda AlphaTauri 22
AlphaTauri Red Bull 41
+2.147
1'37.412
0.171 18 G. Zhou Alfa Romeo 24
Alfa Romeo Ferrari 36
+2.391
1'37.656
0.244 19 D. Ricciardo AlphaTauri 3
AlphaTauri Red Bull 40
+2.415
1'37.680
0.024 20 L. Sargeant Williams 2
Williams Mercedes 42
+2.875
1'38.140
0.460 View full results
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