Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and co won’t climb out of their cockpits until 3:30am local time on the first day of running for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. This is due to a major rescheduling of the FP2 session following an incident during the first practice session earlier on Friday.
With this being a street race and a new circuit, maximising the efficiency of practice sessions is crucial for the teams, but FP1 lasted a mere nine minutes on Friday following an early red flag.
This red flag was brought out after Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz drove over a loose drain cover valve on the circuit, which was then torn from the track, causing extreme damage to the underbody and power unit of the SF-23.
With the track deemed unsafe without further inspections of all other drain covers on the circuit, FP1 was called short, leading to the scheduling changes in question.
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As a result of the reduced running in FP1, FP2 has now been extended from a 60-minute session to 90 minutes, with the new start time being 2:00am local time. Given the longer run time, the second practice session will now end at 3:30am.
While these changes will give the teams more time to perfect their set-ups ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying session, this will come as little consolation to Sainz and Ferrari.
It was confirmed by team principal Frederic Vasseur that his Spanish driver will not feature in FP2 as the Ferrari crew attempt to repair some of the extensive damage caused to his SF-23.
Confirming the state of play in the post-FP1 press conference, Vasseur said: “We had a very tough FP1. It will cost us a fortune. We f***ed up the session for Carlos.
“We won’t be part of FP2 for sure…. We have to change the chassis out from the car, to set up the car. Okay, the show is the show and everything is going well, but I think it’s just unacceptable for F1 today.”
The stewards later confirmed that the No.55 car is fitting a new survival cell, internal combustion engine, energy store and control electronics for the remaining sessions of a weekend, placing Sainz at risk of a grid penalty.
