#F1 #LasVegasGP: FP1 cancelled due to track repairs.

Las Vegas FP1 Cancelled – The opening Formula 1 FP1 session at the Las Vegas Grand Prix has been cancelled after 20 minutes of running, having been red-flagged for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz’s stoppage.

Amid the driver’s initial tours around the Las Vegas Street Circuit for the first time, the lap-times rapidly tumbled as the drivers became acclimatised with the new layout; Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas set the first benchmark of a 1:50.227, but that effort quickly fell as several drivers lowered the bar – Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ending the opening five minutes with a 1:44.019.

Leclerc’s Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz then produced an unwelcomed hiatus in the early tours, as the Spaniard’s SF-23 racer crawled to a stop between the Bellagio and Paris hotels on the Las Vegas Strip having been sent into the air by a bump in the track.

Replays showed heavy damage to the front part of Sainz’s floor, with a drain cover understood to be the cause of the damage, with FIA stewards Garry Connolly and Derek Warwick inspecting the damage to Sainz’s SF-23 racer.

Thus, FP1 will not be restarted to ensure fixes to the Las Vegas Street Circuit, which will include more inspections of the other drains around the circuit and further spot-welding of those deemed to pose a risk of further incidents.

“Following inspection, it was the concrete frame around a manhole cover that has failed,” the FIA’s statement read. “We now need to check all of the other manhole covers which will take some time – we will be discussing with the local circuit engineering team about the length of time it will take to resolve and will update with any resultant changes to the schedule.”

The other driver affected included Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who will receive a new chassis for his A523 having also hit the drain cover along the Las Vegas Strip during the red flag period.

With no other support categories at this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, it is possible that the sport’s governing body, the FIA will either extend FP2 or FP3 sessions to make up for the time of running lost.

This echoes of aborting the opening practice session at the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Williams Racing’s George Russell ran over a loose drain cover on the run-down to turn three and sustaining floor damage.

The Briton was forced to miss FP2 that weekend as he was given a new chassis, and the drain cover was understood to have been an anomaly compared to others around the Baku City Street Circuit.

Haas F1 Team also received compensation for a drain-related incident in 2017, as a “welding failure” on a drain at the Sepang International Circuit pitched Romain Grosjean into a crash during the Malaysian Grand Prix Free Practice Two session.

You can see the full Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1225/las-vegas/practice-1.html

#F1 @Heineken Silver #LasVegasGP 2023 Preview. #Formula1