Mercedes

Mercedes went into the weekend as one of the favourites, but they seemed content to build slowly and not chase lap times. Even so, both drivers were in the top 10 in the first session and split by just 0.004s. Antonelli continued his recent run of impressive form in FP2, pushing Norris really close and winding up just 0.029s back from the McLaren man. Russell might have been even faster as he was on a hot lap when the red flags came out, having just gone purple in the first sector. What he could achieve will remain unknown though, as he goes into tomorrow with a few unanswered questions.

George Russell – FP1: 1:35.534, P9; FP2: 1:34.037, P7

“We haven’t had a bad day today. I think we are in the mix near the front, but we need to be realistic that several of our competitors also looked strong but didn’t put their laps together yet. We’ve come into this weekend with people keen to put the favourites tag on us, but the situation has changed a lot in the 12 months since we were so strong here last year. We have made the car stronger at other circuits but that has possibly made us slightly less strong here.

“It is definitely going to be close come qualifying tomorrow. It looks like there are any number of cars that could take pole position so we will have to be at our very best if we are to score a good result. We will work hard overnight and see what we can do tomorrow.”

Kimi Antonelli – FP1: 1:35.538, P10; FP2: 1:33.631, P2

“Our first day on track here in Las Vegas was a good one. I enjoyed learning the track lap-by-lap and I felt good in the car throughout. We’ve still got some work to do if we want to be challenging at the very front this weekend, but it was a solid start.

“The track evolution was a surprise to me. The circuit was very green in FP1 and ramped up so much over the course of the day. We are expecting the same tomorrow so we will have to be ready for that, react accordingly and keep evolving as the track itself does. We will see how much that impacts qualifying, but it is definitely something we will need to take into account.”

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

“Track evolution is a major factor of any first day on a street circuit, and that is particularly true here in Las Vegas with a track that is only used once a year combined with the cold temperatures. FP1 is therefore about getting as much consecutive running as possible, enabling the drivers to build their confidence and to get the tyres into a good working window. That was particularly important for Kimi given it’s his first visit here. Both he and George acquitted themselves well, completing useful single lap and high fuel work. Our long runs looked competitive, and we weren’t far off on low fuel but, given how much the circuit will change heading into Friday and then Saturday, we can’t read too much into that.

“FP2 was still a useful session despite the two red flag interruptions. We didn’t get to add to our long run data from earlier in the day, but we gathered more information on the single lap on both the Medium and Soft tyre. Kimi was in the minority of drivers who managed to put together a good lap on the Soft before the interruptions, leaving him P2. George’s lap didn’t appear on the time sheets as the red flag came out just before he crossed the line, but he was on course for a time that would have put him P3, despite losing a bit of time into turn 12 with a lock-up. We had quite different setups across the cars in the second session, so we’ll do some work overnight to pick through those differences to understand what we want to carry into FP3. Overall, it has been a solid start to the weekend.”