Formula 1 News: Leclerc leads Ferrari 1-2 in Las Vegas FP2

Charles Leclerc turned a lap of 1m35.265s to top a delayed but extended Practice 2 for the Las Vegas GP and lead a Ferrari 1-2.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

After Practice 1 was cut short due to loose water valve covers in the road, Practice 2 was run without incident and without fans and the backdrop was a spectacular as everyone expected. The track appears to be very racy, and hopefully the racing will be spectacular come Saturday night.

The fear of issues from cold temperatures turned out to be totally unfounded.

Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. running a new chassis after it was broken in Practice 1 after hitting a water valve cover, was 2nd quick, 0.517s behind.

Both Ferrari were running a very low downforce setup, which appears to be the quick way around this track, but Sainz will take a 10-place Grid Position penalty due to a power unit change.

Fernando Alonso was third for Aston Martin, 0.528s behind.

Sergio Perez was 4th fastest for Red Bull, 0.820s behind. Red Bull came with a higher downforce setup and they appear to be paying the price.

Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top-5 for Alfa Romeo, 0.864s behind.

World Champion Max Verstappen could only manage 9th best time, 0.918s behind.

It has not been the easiest day for Ferrari but as the first day of running comes to a close the Scuderia might be the happiest of the 10 teams in the paddock.

Like Red Bull, McLaren struggled in Practice 2 with Lando Norris 11th and Oscar Piastri in 14th.

With data collected from Practice 2, all the teams will be crunching the data and adjusting their setups for Practice 3 and qualifying Saturday night.

Las Vegas GP Practice 2 Results