LAS VEGAS — Lando Norris finished fastest in Free Practice 2 ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix Thursday night in Sin City.
The McLaren driver who leads the Formula 2 standings headed the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the latter suffering a late mechanical issue.
Norris, who heads into this weekend with a 24-point lead over McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri after taking back-to-back wins, posted a 1 minute, 33.602-second lap as two red flags for track maintenance caused disrupted running for many at the end of the session.
Norris became the first driver to dip below the 1 minute, 34 second barrier – posting a 1 minute 33.943 seconds – before having a big lock-up and running deep at Turn 14, the Briton’s time also beaten by Leclerc’s 1 minute, 33.763 seconds before the halfway point of the session.
Focus soon switched towards qualifying simulations on the soft tire, with Kimi Antonelli and then Norris moving to the top of the times, the latter on a 1 minute 33.602 seconds before the red flag was deployed with just over 20 minutes remaining.
After a track inspection, the session resumed with just over five minutes remaining, prompting a flurry of activity in the pit lane as drivers rushed to head out for some final flying laps.
But there was further late drama for Leclerc, who pulled off the track with a gearbox issue having been told not to shift over the radio by his engineer, before another red flag was deployed to bring the session to an end.
It left Norris fastest, 0.029 seconds clear of Antonelli, with Leclerc third on the medium tire, followed by Hulkenberg and the two Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar, all who managed to post laps on the soft tire.
“[It’s] always tricky here,” Norris said. “I think we have a better feeling in the car than what we had last year, so that’s a positive, and that was felt I would say already from Lap 1 today.
“Some good feeling, of course not a lot of running in the end, not really any high-fuel running, but the pace clearly is there.”
