McLaren have enjoyed a dominant year, clinching the constructors’ championship with a quarter of the season to spare, but they’ve still got work to do to secure their first drivers’ title since 2008.
Making matters a bit tricky is that they don’t have the strongest record at the Las Vegas Grand Prix in its two years of existence. In 2023, Lando Norris suffered a heavy crash on the third lap while Oscar Piastri could only manage 10th place.
Last year, amidst another constructors’ championship season, the pair struggled to get their tires working in the opening stint and came in just P6 and P7. Ahead of the race weekend, Norris addressed his past struggles here.
💬 “Vegas has been a challenging one for us in the past, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be trying our hardest to extract maximum performance from what’s available within the car.
“I’m feeling really good and motivated. I’m ready for this final push.”
They finished 19th and 20th in FP3 just now, but were looking competitive before spending the final part of the session in the pits. There’s a wide range of possibilities of what we could reasonably expect from them in qualifying later on tonight.