F1 Las Vegas GP: Russell tops red-flagged final practice as Albon crashes

Following a disrupted first day of running on Thursday night and Friday morning, most of which was held behind closed doors, fans were welcomed back into the grandstands to witness final practice on the streets of Las Vegas.

With the track re-opened for road traffic during the day, action got underway at 8:30pm local time on a circuit with different grip levels compared to how the drivers left it at 4am earlier in FP2 on the same the day.

Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz continued where they left off after taking a 1-2 in FP2, leading early doors in the same positions.

The first 20 minutes were marked by an odd duel between Leclerc and Kevin Magnussen, the Monegasque driver holding up the Haas driver before the latter seemed to return the favour.

At the halfway mark Red Bull got involved at the front, with Sergio Perez leading the way on softs by virtue of a 1m35.146s lap, before world champion Max Verstappen went half a second quicker with a 1m34.653s effort.

On softs Williams' Albon then split the Red Bulls and the Ferraris with third, on a circuit that his team is tipped to perform well at.

It took until the final quarter for the top times to tumble again, Russell beating Verstappen's benchmark by 0.068s as the track continued to grip up and more drivers shifted to qualifying simulations.

General view of the start finish line from above at the Las Vegas GP (Photo by: Philip Hurst / Motorsport Images)

Verstappen was poised to retaliate with a purple first sector, but followed AlphaTauri's Daniel Ricciardo into the Turn 12 run-off area.

That opened the door for Russell and McLaren's Oscar Piastri to trade the lead, with Russell ahead until a red flag five minutes before the end, which curtailed FP3.

The stoppage was caused by Albon, who tapped the wall hard coming out of Turn 5 and lost the left-rear wheel on his Williams.

With Albon unable to finish his final flyer, team-mate Logan Sargeant took up the mantle to claim third after what had been a promising display for the Grove team.

Verstappen was demoted to fourth after his off-track moment, which was still enough to stay in front of Perez and Albon.

Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was seventh ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, with Valtteri Bottas and Magnussen rounding out the top 10.

Lando Norris was another driver that saw his final push lap compromised after catching a huge slide out of Turn 12. He narrowly avoiding the wall but the lost lap time meant he had to settle for 11th.

Nico Hulkenberg was 12th ahead of Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon and Zhou Guanyu.

Setting their best laps in the opening stages when the track was at its slowest, Ferrari duo Leclerc and Sainz then dropped down the order to finish 16th and 17th respectively.

Alex Albon, Williams FW45 (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images)

In a low-key session for AlphaTauri, Yuki Tsunoda was 18th and Ricciardo last, the pair split by Pierre Gasly in the Alpine.

Before the session the FIA decided to expand the circuit's second DRS zone on the Strip by 50 metres to boost overtaking.

The 6.2km layout, which features DRS zones on its two large straights, was expected to provide plenty of action. But after initial running on Thursday it was decided to expand the zone on the iconic Las Vegas Boulevard as the low-downforce setups the teams are using have resulted in a reduced the slipstream effect.

The activation point is now located 870 metres before the tight Turn 14 instead of 820 metres.

Qualifying for the race will commence at midnight local time.

F1 Las Vegas GP - FP3 results

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

       

Driver Info			Main Information Additional Data
Cla	Driver	#		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	G. Russell Mercedes	63		Mercedes	Mercedes	23	1'34.093		237.250
2	O. Piastri McLaren	81		McLaren	Mercedes	20	+0.398 1'34.491	0.398	236.251
3	L. Sargeant Williams	2		Williams	Mercedes	17	+0.552 1'34.645	0.154	235.866
4	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		Red Bull	Red Bull	14	+0.560 1'34.653	0.008	235.846
5	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11		Red Bull	Red Bull	13	+0.613 1'34.706	0.053	235.714
6	A. Albon Williams	23		Williams	Mercedes	14	+0.633 1'34.726	0.020	235.664
7	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		Aston Martin	Mercedes	18	+0.695 1'34.788	0.062	235.510
8	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44		Mercedes	Mercedes	24	+0.760 1'34.853	0.065	235.349
9	V. Bottas Alfa Romeo	77		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	18	+0.815 1'34.908	0.055	235.213
10	K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team	20		Haas	Ferrari	18	+0.974 1'35.067	0.159	234.819
11	L. Norris McLaren	4		McLaren	Mercedes	17	+0.996 1'35.089	0.022	234.765
12	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27		Haas	Ferrari	17	+1.019 1'35.112	0.023	234.708
13	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		Aston Martin	Mercedes	20	+1.160 1'35.253	0.141	234.361
14	E. Ocon Alpine	31		Alpine	Renault	15	+1.204 1'35.297	0.044	234.252
15	Z. Guanyu Alfa Romeo	24		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	15	+1.788 1'35.881	0.584	232.826
16	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		Ferrari	Ferrari	22	+1.815 1'35.908	0.027	232.760
17	C. Sainz Ferrari	55		Ferrari	Ferrari	21	+1.846 1'35.939	0.031	232.685
18	Y. Tsunoda AlphaTauri	22		AlphaTauri	Red Bull	15	+1.994 1'36.087	0.148	232.326
19	P. Gasly Alpine	10		Alpine	Renault	12	+2.392 1'36.485	0.398	231.368
20	D. Ricciardo AlphaTauri	3		AlphaTauri	Red Bull	15	+3.685 1'37.778	1.293	228.309
View full results

Copy link

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on WhatsApp

Share on Linkedin

Share on Pinterest

Share on Viber

shares

comments