F1 News: Russell tops final practice for the 2024 Las Vegas GP

George Russell made it 3-for-3 for Mercedes by topping final practice for the 2024 Las Vegas GP Formula 1 race with a time of 1m33.570s on the Las Vegas Strip Circuit.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Oscar Piastri was 2nd quick for McLaren, 0.215s behind Russell, in round 22 of 24 for the 2024 season.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was the faster of the two Ferraris in third, 0.348s behind Russell.

Lando Norris was 4th in the #4 McLaren, 0.434s behind Russell’s Mercedes.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen rounded out the top-5, 0.567s behind Russell.

Lewis Hamilton, who led both practice sessions on Thursday, was 6th in final practice, 0.771s behind his Mercedes teammate Russell.

The final 6 minutes in the session were lost due to a red flag for Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.  Replays show that Stroll’s car just shut off, with a loss of power. That’s far from ideal for Aston Martin, who won’t have long to assess and fix any power unit issues given the car hasn’t been recovered yet.

Thanks to those interrupted qualifying simulation runs, we don’t know the full hand anyone has out there today.

Leclerc has more pace than P12, that’s for sure. But whether Haas, Williams and Alpine have genuine top 10 potential remains to be seen – while the gaps up front look set to be much closer than they were in this session.

Whoever can time their final runs in Q3 perfectly will be advantaged with the track rubbering in with every lap, but whoever can find a tow could also jump up the leaderboard.

2024 Las Vegas GP Practice 3 Results