#F1 #LasVegasGP FP3: @GeorgeRussell63 pips @OscarPiastri by 0.398s as red flag ends session early.
George Russell, #63, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team, F1 W14, Free Practice 3, Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2023, Las Vegas Strip Circuit, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America. Image credit to Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images. Russell Las Vegas GP FP3, 2023 Las Vegas GP FP3, Las Vegas GP FP3 Results, Sainz Las Vegas Penalty.
Russell Las Vegas GP FP3 – Mercedes’ George Russell pipped McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in FP3 ahead of qualifying at the Las Vegas GP as the session ended under a red flag five minutes before the end after Williams’ Alexander Albon hit the wall with the rear-left of his car, losing his rear-left tyre.
Russell posted the benchmark of a 1:34.093 on his qualifying simulation run on the C5 red side-walled softer compounds and was 0.398 seconds quicker than Piastri as Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant rounded out the top three a further 0.552 seconds adrift of the Briton.
Following a disrupted day of running on Thursday evening and Friday morning, most of which was ran behind closed doors, fans were welcomed back into the grandstands to witness the FP3 before qualifying on the Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
With the track opened for local traffic during the day, Formula 1 action got underway at 8:30pm local time on a circuit with different grip levels compared to how drivers left it at 4am this morning.
Ferrari pairing Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz picked up from where they left off taking a P1-P2 in the early proceedings in the same order.
The opening 20 minutes were marked by an entertaining duel between Leclerc and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen, as the Monegasque driver held up the Dane before the latter returned the favour.
At the midway point, Red Bull started to emerge at the front as Sergio Perez lead the way on the C5 red-mark softs with a 1:35.416, before his team-mate Max Verstappen went half-a-second faster on a 1:34.653.
On the softs, Williams’ Albon then split the Red Bulls and the Ferrari’s jumping up into third, on a circuit, which is tipped for his Grove based-outfit team to perform well at.
It took until the final 15 for the times to once again tumble as Russell beat Verstappen’s benchmark by 0.068 seconds as the Las Vegas Strip Circuit continued to grip up and more drivers began their qualifying simulations.
Verstappen was on course to trounce the Briton’s time-topper but followed former team-mate Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri) into the turn 12 run-off.
This opened the door for Russell and McLaren’s Piastri to switch times at the top, with the former in-front until the red flag five minutes before the end, which prematurely closed FP3.
The halt was caused by Albon, who whacked the wall hard coming out of the turn five exit and lost his left-rear wheel on his FW45 racer.
With Albon unable to complete his final flying lap, his team-mate Sargeant climbed up into an impressive third on his home tarmac.
Verstappen was relegated to fourth after his off-track excursion, which was enough to remain ahead of team-mate Perez and Albon.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was seventh in the order and in-front of Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton who took eighth.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and the aforementioned Magnussen rounded out the top ten.
McLaren’s Lando Norris finished outside the top ten in 11th place and ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg who was 12th and whilst Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon ended the final practice session before qualifying in 13th and 14th.
Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu took 15th in the classification and ahead of Ferrari duo Leclerc and Sainz who were 16th and 17th respectively as the latter pairing were unable to post a flyer.
Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo placed 18th and at the rear respectively as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly split the pairing in 19th.
Before the session, the FIA opted to expand the circuit’s second DRS zone on the Las Vegas Strip by 50 metres to increase overtaking.
The 6.201 kilometre layout, which features DRS zones on its two long straights, was expected to provide plenty of action. But after initial running yesterday, it was decided to expand the zone on the famous Las Vegas Boulevard as the low-downforce setups the teams are using have resulted in a reduced slipstream effect.
The activation zone is now located 870 metres before the tight Turn 14 instead of 820 metres.
You can see the full Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1225/las-vegas/practice-3.html
Sainz hit with ten-grid placed penalty for Las Vegas GP after FP1 incident
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was hit with a ten-place grid drop for this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix with the Scuderia forced to change a number of power unit elements following opening practice.
The Spaniard came to a stop in the early proceedings of Thursday evening’s Free Practice One session at the new Las Vegas Strip Circuit after hitting a drain cover, causing damage to his Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), Energy Store (ES), Control Electronics (CE) along with the survival cell (Chassis).
Ferrari submitted a request to the sport’s governing body, the FIA, asking for a “derogation of the Sporting Regulations”, to allow a replacement of the Energy Store from the outside pool without a penalty, but this was not given.
After hearing from Scuderia Ferrari’s Team Representative, the Director of FIA’s Single Seater Department, having viewed the video evidence and examined the Maranello-marque’s declaration sheet, the race stewards explained their decision.
The statement read: “The stewards determine that notwithstanding the fact that the damage was caused by highly unusual external circumstances, Article 2.1 of the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations obliges all officials, including the Stewards, to apply the regulations as they are written. Accordingly, the mandatory penalty specified under Article 28.3 of the Sporting Regulations must be applied. The stewards note that if they had the authority to grant a derogation in what they consider in this case to be mitigating, unusual and unfortunate circumstances, they would have done so, however the regulations do not allow such action.” Credit to the FIA for the quote.
When Free Practice Two began, the FIA confirmed that Sainz had been given a third new Energy Store for the season, exceeding the limit of two allowed, meaning a ten-placed-grid-penalty will be applied for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
#F1 #LasVegasGP FP2: @CharlesLeclerc heads @ScuderiaFerrari one-two in delayed session.
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