Charles Leclerc maintained his lead in the extended FP2 session of the F1 Las Vegas GP, ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz and third place Fernando Alonso.
After FP1 ended early, FP2 was delayed as organizers completed work to fill drain covers to avoid facing similar issues to the first session. The session lasted his 90 minutes, making up for the time lost in his first hour and giving the team more chances.
FP2 will start two hours later than scheduled as late hours forced fans to withdraw from the race and organizers needed to act quickly to open roads to the public. I did. Once started, the session went very smoothly without any mishaps.
A few retirements brought out the yellow flag, but it wasn’t a big deal as it was 1-2 for Ferrari, with Leclerc taking the lead with a lap of 1 minute 35.265 seconds ahead of his teammate Sainz. Repairs to Sainz were completed on schedule. However, the Spaniard must take his tenth penalty.
Ferrari asked the stewards not to impose a penalty for replacing the energy storage unit, but despite knowing the incident was not the team’s or driver’s fault, the stewards refused to comply with the Sporting Regulations. He pointed out that it is not possible to consider beyond the scope of the above.
Aston Martin’s Alonso finished third ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, while teammate Max Verstappen finished sixth behind Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas. Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg was seventh, and Lance Stroll’s other Aston Martin was eighth.
Williams’ Lewis Hamilton and Alexander Albon completed the top ten, but McLaren’s Lando Norris finished 11th after experiencing cooling problems early in the session. Mercedes’ George Russell was in his 12th place ahead of Haas’ Kevin his Magnussen and McLaren’s Oscar his Piastri.
Alpine duo Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon finished 15th and 16th, although their cars were also repaired before the second practice session. AlphaTauri’s Hiroki Tsunoda finished 17th, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Chou Guanyu, AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo and Williams’ Logan Sargent.
The off-off list, mainly at Turn 14, included players such as Magnussen, Perez, Stroll, Verstappen (twice), Gasly, Russell and Sargent, as well as those who caused the yellow flag. There are also players.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1725484310264725899?s=20
Here’s what the FIA said about Carlos Sainz’s punishment: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix – Decision – Car No. 55 – Replacement component .pdf
What happened in FP1 of the F1 Las Vegas GP
