Las Vegas GP Practice 1: Sir Lewis Hamilton surprises with top spot, Norris again edges Verstappen

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton surprisingly topped the first practice session of the Las Vegas GP ahead of his teammate George Russell and Lando Norris. The most expected reigning champion Max verstappen finished fifth splitting the two Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Sir Lewis finds a pole again

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The full rundown on first practice 👇#F1#LasVegasGPpic.twitter.com/rKiG97W6zr

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 22, 2024

Sir Lewis Hamilton was very dominant from the beginning of the session. Unlike the Brazilian Grand Prix, Mercedes seems to have listened to Hamilton’s frustration over the car and has done a pretty good job in helping the 7-time world champion get his pace again. He was the fastest driver on the grid with a lap time of 1.35.001s ahead of his teammate George Russell who was 3 hundredths of a millisecond slower than him at second and Lando Norris who finished third. 

Ferrari was expected to be the quickest but they ended up in fourth and sixth place as the Red Bull driver Max verstappen split the Leclerc/sainz pair by finishing fifth. Aston Martin driver and the most senior on the grid, Fernando Alonso was very impressive and finished seventh in the session.

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McLaren driver Oscar Piastri followed the Spaniard by finishing eighth, while Alpine’s Pierre Gasly finished ninth and Sergio Perez of Red Bull followed him in tenth. Haas driver Kevin Magnussen finished 11th and Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll finished 12th on the grid. Williams' driver Alex Albon did a pretty good job and finished 13th followed by Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg at 14th and 15th positions. The two Sauber drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu finished 16th and 18th. 

Franco Colapinto split the two Sauber's by finishing 17th. The final two positions were occupied by the two Red Bull juniors, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson, who shockingly finished in the last two. They need to work hard to turn their fortunes in the next session. The Las Vegas Grand Prix is the last race of this season in the Americas and we will head to Asia for the final two Grand prix in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

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