Thursday at the F1 GP in Las Vegas took a dramatic turn after an early end to FP1, but there was some recovery in the longer FP2 session.
Thursday’s F1 GP in Las Vegas did not get off to a smooth start. FP1 was halted after a drain cover was pulled up, damaging Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz’s car. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was also affected by this. Especially since both chassis had to be modified.
Additionally, Sainz will have to accept an on-grid penalty for his third energy store, which will surely drop him back to at least 10th if he secures pole. Ferrari looks good in terms of one-lap pace with Charles Leclerc leading both sessions, but I’m still not confident about race pace.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was in the top three, but Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren were not in the top group. Max Verstappen thought he had a good feel for the first lap but was a bit more deteriorating, so it wasn’t for the long term.
Lewis Hamilton had a good feel for the fast-paced Las Vegas circuit but knows qualifying will be key to scoring good points. Lando Norris, on the other hand, expected to be a little late given the type of circuit in Las Vegas.
Leclerc: “Things are looking good at the moment. I like trucks and they’re fun to drive. I’ve always liked street trucks and this one is good. At the moment So we look pretty strong, it’s hard to say exactly where we are on race pace, but we look strong on qualifying pace. We still have to work on it and take steps towards tomorrow, but it’s a good start. I don’t know. I think we can improve our positions in qualifying as usual, but I think they are still too strong on race pace. Max did a very good race simulation, so as usual they will definitely be strong [on race day], but they will pass by a close margin in qualifying tomorrow. ”
Sainz: “Unfortunately, after the accident, the chassis, drive unit, battery and even my seat were clearly damaged and it would be too difficult to build a completely new one. It took a huge effort from all the mechanics and the team.” One car for FP2. Thanks to that, I was able to finish the session. I think this was a heroic effort by the team and mechanics. And I was able to attend the session. I managed to regain some time and focus on tomorrow. ”
Hamilton: “We’re moving pretty fast outside. It’s incredibly fast and it’s a lot of fun – I had a lot of fun today. I’m learning how to walk again. It was really good. They did a great job of solving the problem and it was an interesting session. It’s going to be interesting. The position in qualifying is very important, and of course the deterioration of the tires will also be important. We had a great time. Everyone suffers from jet lag and such, but I feel really good. I just watched a movie during the break between FP1 and FP2 and I’m feeling great and ready to start again. ”
Verstappen: “It’s slippery. Of course, I didn’t ride much in FP1 so it took me a while to settle down a little bit more. I think I did a little better in the end. I was able to finish the program. I think that was the most important thing today. I think one lap is enough for the software. Long runs were a little difficult. The soft tires seemed to be having a really hard time, so I immediately changed them to medium tires, but in the long run, even medium tires don’t seem to be easy tires. There are still some things we need to investigate to see how we can improve our level of [mining] in the long run. I think we still look very good compared to others, but I feel that maybe we can do a better job. I don’t think choosing tires for racing is easy. ”
NORRIS: “Today was a difficult day with a difficult route. The grip was poor and the tires broke quickly, but that’s what we did. I think it’s a long way from where we were at the weekend, but probably not where we expected it to be. It’s similar to Monza and other low downforce tracks. We’re struggling at the moment, but until tomorrow. I am confident that we can make progress.”
Alonso: “It’s definitely an interesting track. It’s got a lot of very different corners and also long straights where the tire temperatures drop a bit at night. So the braking zones are interesting. Yes, and it’s a bit random which grip you get. I think the racing is fun and there are a lot of overtaking opportunities. Let’s see if we can optimize something tomorrow. It shouldn’t be too bad. I think the final consideration in qualifying will be tire temperature. I think if there’s a safety car or something like that that lowers the temperature of the tires, you’ll get a little more adrenaline. It’s going to be a little harder, but it’s the same for everyone and you should be ready for it. Let’s take a look. I had a fulfilling first day. Like everyone else, I think we still need to optimize some aspects of the car. Let’s see tomorrow when it can reach its full potential. We have enough in our pockets, but everyone has one. I think it will be very tough. Today I found that there were about 10 machines within 2/10. Therefore, everything needs to be optimized in qualifying. ”
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was also in the top ten. He had a good feeling but is cautious about his position for now. He knows that qualifying will be a completely different match, so he still wants to perform. Williams’ Alexander as a partner in the top 10 he had Albon.
Given the situation, the team seems to be holding back from showing any pace as they are hoping for a Q3 finish and points. It was about 50-50 with players like Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and AlphaTauri’s Hiroki Tsunoda feeling they needed to find a performance to progress into the third quarter. It was a tough job for Alpine and for Ocon, but they managed to fix it and get it up and running.
Bottas: “It’s always great to finish inside the top five, but it’s still early in the season so we can’t get too excited. Everyone will improve a lot tomorrow. , we need to do the same, but as far as we see today we looked good. We have a clear direction in mind for the setup to improve the balance of the car. In the slow corners still There was a bit of understeer and if we fixed that we would gain a lot of time.The track was exactly as we expected, very fast, with long straights and very slippery at the start of the session. The grip gets better with each lap, and we can expect further improvement tomorrow. Now we have to focus on performing even better before qualifying. The nights will be even longer than they are now, but we are motivated to continue to maintain this level. ”
Hulkenberg: “It was obviously an interesting day under unique circumstances for everyone involved. I think the 2:30am FP2 start will be a long-lasting record. I don’t think it will break that easily. When we prepared and learned the route, we thought we were ok, but of course we’re still looking. We’ll have to spend the night and see what we can do with the setup. However, today I didn’t feel bad for at least one lap.Thank you to all the fans who have been here for a long time.I will do my best to bring you even more enjoyable entertainment tomorrow.”
Albon: “It’s a difficult track, but it wasn’t too bad, but the important thing is the braking. Once you have confidence in your brakes, you can go quite fast. New It’s a course so the level of development is very high, but the machine is in good condition and I think it’s in good shape.It needs a little fine-tuning, but that’s expected, but the pace was good.The temperature is low, so the cross-country I think skiing is a little difficult, but other than that I feel good.”
Ocon: “It was a busy night with a lot of emotions to say the least! While it was a lot of fun to drive the famous streets of Las Vegas for the first time today, The training session unfortunately ended prematurely, as I hit a loose drain cover during the first few laps around the track, causing severe damage to the car and requiring suspension replacement. Kudos to the team for organizing everything within the time frame and making it in time for the delayed second session. Free practice 2 was simple, with a variety of tests and a lot of testing on the tires and road conditions. I like this track and it should be an exciting qualifying and race. Let’s think about what we can do today after getting a few hours of well-deserved sleep. ”
Kakuda: “It’s disappointing for the fans that FP1 wasn’t restarted, but safety comes first.” It took a while for FP2 to start, but in the end I was allowed to drive. We conducted a 90-minute experiment and were able to collect valuable data. The road surface is quite slippery, but I like the course layout itself. It’s especially fun because the curbs are passable and you can drive quite aggressively. Performance doesn’t seem to be very good at the moment, but we got a lot of data today, so I’m sure we can expect good progress. We have an idea of some of the limitations and we are already trying to improve them, especially in the long term, and we feel that we are already definitely improving. We work together to do our best to get the most performance out of your package. ”
F1 team manager talks about the situation at Las Vegas GP
This happened in FP1 of the F1 Las Vegas GP
This happened in FP2 of the F1 Las Vegas GP
