F1 News: Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in 2024 Las Vegas GP FP1

In a session where the times did not mean much because the track was so dusty, Lewis Hamilton turned a lap of 1m35.001s in his Mercedes to top opening practice for the 2024 Las Vegas GP on the Las Vegas Strip Circuit.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

With their engines turned up compared to everyone else, George Russell was 2nd quick, 0.396s behind his teammate Hamilton.

Lando Norris was third for McLaren, a huge 0.953s behind Hamilton with the dust flying all around the circuit.

Charles Leclerc was 4th in his #16 Ferrari, 1.006s behind 7-time World Champion Hamilton.

Last year’s Las Vegas GP winner Max Verstappen rounded out the top-5, a massive 1.037s behind Hamilton.

The track did evolve a lot, and will continue to do so in FP2, but times were over 5 seconds slower than last year’s qualifying times, so a lot more time to come by tomorrow.

There were lock-ups aplenty, a few technical gremlins in that session too. Plenty to work on before FP2 then, and plenty of data to analyze.

Bottas Hit with 5-place Grid Penalty

Kick Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas has been hit with a five-place grid drop for the Las Vegas Grand Prix after the team exceeded the limit of power unit components by introducing a new energy store.

Each competitor is permitted two energy stores per season, but this will be the Finn’s fourth, breaching the FIA Sporting Regulations.

2024 Las Vegas GP Practice 1 Results