Red flag drama as Vegas curse strikes… AGAIN; Norris in two big scares \u2014 Wrap<\/a><\/p>\nPiastri trying to close gap in Las Vegas | 00:45<\/p>\n
WHY FP2 WAS SUCH A COSTLY LOSS<\/p>\n
The red flags flew just over 35 minutes into the session, but really drivers had less than half of that time running in anger.<\/p>\n
Rain doused the track before the session, and it took five minutes for the first few drivers to sample the slippery conditions.<\/p>\n
Only half the field was circulating by the 10-minute mark, and it wasn\u2019t until the 15-minute mark that the track was dry enough to tempt all 20 cars into action.<\/p>\n
The session was called off about 20 minutes later.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not much running for what is typically \u2014 and especially at this track \u2014 the most important practice session.<\/p>\n
Normally FP2 is critical because it\u2019s the best opportunity for teams to conduct race simulations to get an understanding of how the tyres behave. They\u2019re also verifying the changes they made after FP1.<\/p>\n
All drivers burn through one set of soft tyres on low fuel to simulate qualifying. FP2 also typically happens at around the time of day qualifying and the race also take place, replicating the climatic conditions<\/p>\n
That\u2019s especially true in Las Vegas, where the condition of the track varies significantly through the night.<\/p>\n
First there\u2019s the temperature. With FP1 and FP3 taking place at sunset, the ambient temperature is a few degrees cooler for FP2, qualifying and the race \u2014 crucial when it\u2019s already in the low teens and drivers are struggling for tyre temperature.<\/p>\n
Then there was the condition of the track. The dustiness of the circuit was clearly visible in FP1, with car kicking up plumes of dirt and grime laid down during the day.<\/p>\n
Things were much better in FP2. Despite rain before the session and despite the qualifying sims not being completed, the fastest time dropped by 1.2 seconds from FP1 to FP2.<\/p>\n
But the public roads open to traffic every day of the grand prix weekend. By the time cars hit the track for FP3, it\u2019ll be almost as dirty as it was at the beginning of the weekend.<\/p>\n
Why does that matter?<\/p>\n
Very few drivers have banked laps on soft tyres and on the track when it\u2019s cleaned up and offering higher grip \u2014 the conditions in which qualifying will take place.<\/p>\n
Given the tyres have proved to be very particular about they want to be prepared and given how low the grip is in the first place, that\u2019s crucial knowledge missing ahead of the grid-setting session.<\/p>\n
Among those who didn\u2019t complete a flying soft lap are Oscar Piastri, the closest title challenger; Max Verstappen, still in mathematical contention for the championship; and George Russell, last year\u2019s winner, although the Mercedes driver did get around two-thirds of the way around the lap, including with a purple first sector.<\/p>\n
But even most of the six drivers who did set a soft time completed only one flying lap. Early suggestions are the softs will probably be good for multiple runs.<\/p>\n
The almost total loss of FP2 puts a great deal of importance on FP3 for a lot of that work to be completed \u2014 but the forecast suggests rain could hit the track again for the final practice session.<\/p>\n
And even if it\u2019s dry, the conditions won\u2019t be as representative as they should have been in FP2.<\/p>\n
It sets up the weekend to be extra challenging for teams and drivers \u2014 but of course that\u2019s great news for the spectacle, with qualifying and the race presenting as far greater unknowns than they otherwise would have been.<\/p>\n
Piastri wins 2025 Don award | 00:48<\/p>\n
NORRIS LEADS, BUT\u2026<\/p>\n
So with all that said, how much optimism will McLaren and Norris take from topping FP2?<\/p>\n
Norris was one of just six drivers to complete laps on the softs. Five of them appeared in the top six; the sixth, Lance Stroll, finished outside the top 10.<\/p>\n
The truth is that the competitive picture isn\u2019t clear.<\/p>\n
Norris narrowly beat Andrea Kimi Antonelli to the place, pipping the Mercedes driver by 0.029 seconds, but Charles Leclerc was 0.161 seconds adrift with a medium-tyre lap, and Nico H\u00fclkenberg was less than 0.3 seconds slower in his Sauber on softs.<\/p>\n
It suggests there would have been more pace to come from the frontrunners with more laps on the soft, casting even this limited form guide into doubt.<\/p>\n
But Norris nonetheless sounded confident that the fixes McLaren had put in place after last year\u2019s disappointing Las Vegas performance were working.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have a better feeling in the car than we had last year, so that\u2019s a positive, and that was felt already on lap 1 of today,\u201d he said. \u201cBut of course not a lot of running in the end, and not really any high-fuel running, but the pace clearly is there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s pretty tight between a lot of people, and not many people even got their laps in, so apart from that, I think we made some steps forward from FP1 to FP2, and hopefully we can just do some more from FP2 to FP3.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what he expected from the rest of the weekend, the Briton didn\u2019t equivocate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re fighting for pole.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri ended the session in 14th and 0.891 seconds off the pace, but it\u2019s hard to read almost anything into his performance given he was unable to complete a run on softs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did two laps for the whole session, so it\u2019s difficult to know exactly where we sit,\u201d he said. \u201cClearly the car\u2019s got decent pace, but not that many people got a great run on the soft.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit wet at the start, the track was evolving a lot \u2014 just difficult to know exactly where everyone sits.<\/p>\n
\u201cStill, plenty of positives, I think, and plenty of things to look through overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri will be hurt particularly by the red flags given he spent FP1 testing a modified rear wing McLaren hoped would boost straight-line speed and cut drag, but the team decided to ditch the part when comparing it with the regular wing used by Norris.<\/p>\n
The Australian suggested it was the right call, but he\u2019s now completed far fewer laps overall in the car configuration he\u2019ll take into qualifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe changed few things into FP2, which seemed to feel pretty good,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll try to do some more tweaking overnight and see what we\u2019ve got. <\/p>\n
\u201cWould I have liked some more laps? Yes, but I think the track is going to continue to change quite a bit through the rest of the weekend, so we\u2019ll see what kind of weather we\u2019ve got tomorrow when we get here and take it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is perhaps one part of the lap worth keeping an eye on when comparing the McLaren drivers.<\/p>\n
Norris locked up several times into turn 12, which leads onto the back straight. When he eventually nailed it on his final medium run, Piastri couldn\u2019t follow him there. The Briton\u2019s better run through the final sector ended up giving him a 0.25-second advantage.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to say anything definitive given the lack of running, but it could be the sign of an early key advantage for Norris. <\/p>\n
The biggest moments of Moto GP 2025 | 17:23<\/p>\n
WHAT WILL QUALIFYING LOOK LIKE?<\/p>\n
Antonelli was only 0.029 seconds slower than Norris as the only other frontrunner to complete a soft-tyre lap. Leclerc was less than 0.2 seconds off the pace on mediums.<\/p>\n
As much as you can read anything into the times, it suggests the battle for pole is likely to be close. Even Max Verstappen, half a second down in ninth, is probably in the ballpark.<\/p>\n
A Formula 1 data analysis suggests less than 0.2 seconds separates the top four teams.<\/p>\n
Predicted one-lap pace<\/p>\n
1. McLaren: fastest<\/p>\n
2. Red Bull Racing: +0.01 seconds<\/p>\n
3. Ferrari: +0.04 seconds<\/p>\n
4. Mercedes: +0.12 seconds<\/p>\n
5. Williams: +0.23 seconds<\/p>\n
6. Racing Bulls: +0.45 seconds<\/p>\n
7. Alpine: +0.54 seconds<\/p>\n
8. Aston Martin: +0.56 seconds<\/p>\n
9. Haas: +0.60 seconds<\/p>\n
10. Sauber: +0.62 seconds<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth nothing, though that even Haas \u2014 as just one example \u2014 thinks it can get a car into Q3 despite being the second-slowest team per this calculation.<\/p>\n
That only illustrates the uncertainty with which the day\u2019s disrupted running left us.<\/p>\n
One thing we did learn during practice, however, was that the rate of track evolution was significant as the cars cleared the dirt off the circuit. Evolution is always high at street tracks for this reason, but it seemed spectacularly so in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
If that continues to be the case tomorrow \u2014 and it likely will given the relative lack of running, the forecast for rain and the fact the public roads will open during the day \u2014 that\u2019s going to put a massive premium on being last out on track during qualifying.<\/p>\n
Being last on track to capitalise on the best, highest grip circuit conditions is part of the story of George Russell\u2019s pole position last year, and running order in all three qualifying segments will likely correlate strongly with grid position again this year.<\/p>\n
But we also got a clear demonstration of the risks of that strategy.<\/p>\n
There were 17 yellow flags across both practice sessions. Encountering any one of them would immediately spoil a qualifying lap.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s of course before mentioning the red flag, which would of course cancel a lap no matter where you are on the circuit.<\/p>\n
The need to avoid both is a strong argument to run early rather than leave it late.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the fact that most teams seemed to be conducting multiple warm-up laps to get any of the compounds into the working window. That will make traffic a problem, especially in Q1, when we could see 20 cars circulating on track several times just to get one fast lap in.<\/p>\n
Practice gave us few real clues about the competitive order. What it did tell us was to expect the unexpected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas \u2014 except the manhole covers. For the second time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[2095,12295,64,63,169615,13776,171749,13275,171735,171744,18919,171734,171730,171742,171761,171762,2057,817,171750,171752,22756,21745,813,816,3875,841,90143,171745,1737,2623,171760,171737,171751,171736,171733,825,171732,927,171740,171739,2627,2041,2067,171741,16280,22297,33108,101335,99085,171738,42720,171753,70693,171747,171758,171759,171755,3595,2020,85,28099,171754,171756,117411,171746,171748,22294,22771,171731,171757,2614,101345,171743,2062,64317,120698],"class_list":["post-300342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-america","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-sporting-hall","tag-auto-race","tag-car-configuration","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-chassis-damage","tag-closest-title-challenger","tag-data-analysis","tag-double-drain-drama","tag-double-red-flags","tag-drain-covers","tag-drain-drama-sets","tag-drivers-burn","tag-europe","tag-f1","tag-final-medium-run","tag-final-practice-session","tag-final-sector","tag-form-guide","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-grand-prix","tag-grand-prix-weekend","tag-grid-position","tag-lando-norris","tag-las-vegas","tag-live-championship-fight","tag-loose-drain-cover","tag-loose-manhole-cover","tag-loose-water-valve","tag-manhole-covers","tag-max-verstappen","tag-medium-tyre-lap","tag-monaco","tag-multiple-runs","tag-multiple-warm-up-laps","tag-nevada","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-permanent-tracks","tag-pole-position","tag-practice-session","tag-practice-sessions","tag-province-of-valencia","tag-public-roads","tag-race-simulations","tag-red-flags","tag-red-flags-flew","tag-relative-lack","tag-road-fixture","tag-second-slowest-team","tag-soft-tyres","tag-soft-tyre-lap","tag-southern-europe","tag-spain","tag-sports","tag-straight-line-speed","tag-street-circuits","tag-street-course","tag-street-tracks","tag-third-last-round","tag-time-cars","tag-title-race","tag-track-evolution","tag-trackside-marshals","tag-tyre-temperature","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-valencia","tag-water-valve-cover","tag-western-europe","tag-world-championship-leader","tag-yellow-flags"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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