Safety-related questions have been raised following the premature ending of the first practice session for this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The session was stopped after only nine minutes after the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz pulled over to the side of the Las Vegas Strip.
The concrete frame of a manhole cover failed and was sucked up into the floor of Sainz’s car severely damaging the chassis, with further concern building around the suspension and front of the floor.
The Spaniard's race engineer, Riccardo Adami told him to “stop the car and turn the engine off” following the incident, which visibly lifted the car off the ground.
The Alpine of Esteban Ocon also suffered because of the loose manhole cover, as the Frenchman has had to change his chassis before Free Practice 2 as he also hit the cover.
As a result of everything that transpired, the much-shortened session showed an unrepresentative timesheet that will most likely be shaken up ahead of qualifying tomorrow.
Results
Charles Leclerc was joined in the top three by the two Haas cars of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen who both managed to get times in just before the session was brought to a halt.
Then came triple-reigning champion Max Verstappen in fourth place, followed by an ailing Ocon in fifth, and George Russell’s Mercedes in sixth
The rest of the top ten was rounded out by the other damaged car in the field of Sainz in seventh, then AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in eighth was followed by the sister Red Bull car of Sergio Perez in ninth.
Valtteri Bottas completed the top ten, and there were some high rollers who couldn’t break into the top half of the results page.
7-time champion Lewis Hamilton was a lowly 12th, and both McLaren cars of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were outside the top 14
Aston Martin has continued their bad run of form of late as their pairing of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso could only muster 16th and 19th in the FP1 session.
Photo credit: grandprix247.com
Weekend Preview
No drivers could really get going and stamp their authority on the brand-new street circuit, but that is probably due to the minuscule amount of running time rather than a combined lack of talent amongst the drivers.
Furthermore, the quintuplet of Stroll, Piastri, Williams’ Alex Albon, Alonso, and the other Williams of Logan Sargeant couldn’t set a representative time.
This means they will have very little data to go into the rest of the weekend with, although it remains to be seen if Formula 1 will schedule more track time for the teams and drivers in the other Free Practice sessions.
Should more track time be allocated, such an arrangement will surely mitigate the effects of not setting a time in a shortened session.