Las Vegas GP: Charles Leclerc fastest as McLaren suffers brake drama in first practice

Charles Leclerc has topped the opening hour of practice for the Las Vegas Grand Prix as braking issues blighted McLaren’s efforts.

Title leader Lando Norris was only sixth best, almost five-tenths down on Leclerc, in a session that saw him brush the wall and twice run off the road under braking.

Ferrari shows early pace as McLaren left with work to do

The track proved especially dusty as cars first ventured out on track, doing so in diminishing light at the sun set and lights began to take hold.

As it did, the temperature was dropping, with an air temp of 14.1 and track of 18.6 as running began.

There was a huge disparity between lap times in the opening moments, with Pierre Gasly logging a 1:41.0s while Gabriel Bortoleto logged a 1:50.4s.

McLaren was splitting its approach, with Oscar Piastri opting for a lower downforce rear wing versus Lando Norris.

The 1.9km blast down The Strip forces a compromise on a circuit where, otherwise, drivers would look for high downforce to offer grip through the slow and medium speed corners.

When Piastri headed out, he did so with his wing coasted in flo vis as the team worked to understand the option fitted to his car.

Gasly remained towards the top of the timesheets through the opening 15 minutes, improving to a 1:37.990s as he came to grips with the circuit.

Others also improved, Isack Hadjar and Carlos Sainz both went faster than the Alpine driver, before Charles Leclerc logged a 1:37.407s to top the timesheets.

He did so on medium tyres, the preferred option for the bulk of the field, with only Nico Hulkenberg (hards) and Fernando Alonso (softs) not on the yellow-walled rubber.

Gasly’s early confidence saw the Frenchman in the escape round at Turn 12, the left-hander onto The Strip, before performing a neat pirouette to get back on track.

It came as the circuit was beginning to clean up, with drivers routinely logging faster and faster laps.

Still, it was slippery, and a number of drivers skated through the run-off at Turn 7, the chicane around in The Sphere.

As he did so, Leclerc had lowered the benchmark to 1:35.954s, a five-second improvement on Gasly’s initial effort in just 20 minutes of running.

The field spread seen initially had reduced significantly, with Oliver Bearman holding the slowest time but just 2.1s away from the top of the timesheets.

At McLaren, Piastri was the faster of the two, sitting just under 0.5s slower than Max Verstappen, who’d gone fastest on 1:35.776s after 15 minutes, while Norris was 11th best and almost half a second slower than his teammate.

There was an exchange between Hadjar and Alex Albon, the Frenchman remonstrating with his Williams rival after he was held up.

That came moments after Lando Norris tagged the barrier at Turn 9, though a comparatively square hit left the team non-plussed by the impact.

Ferrari took a greater interest in one of Lewis Hamilton’s wheels with suspicion of a damaged rim on his car.

The squad replaced the tyreset before taking a closer look at the wheel in question.

On the soft tyres, Hamilton went fastest with a 1:33.561s. Purple through the first two sectors, he gave up time through the final sector, suggesting either an unseen mistake or that the tyres weren’t surviving a full lap.

That signalled the start of the performance runs, which saw Gasly once again appear towards the top of the timesheets.

He quickly fell back down the orders as others improved, Leclerc going fastest with George Russell second as Hamilton’s effort left him third.

Verstappen then went fastest with 18 minutes remaining, logging a 1:35.109s. It stood only until Yuki Tsunoda went 0.038s faster than his Red Bull teammate.

Hamilton snatched a brake into Turn 12 and elected to bail out of the left-hander, and took to the escape road.

McLaren was among the last to begin qualifying simulations, though Norris was well down through the first split before going wide at Turn 12 as Hamilton had moments earlier.

There was clearly more pace in the track, Leclerc improving to 1:34.802s, though it was proving difficult for Norris to unlock as, on his second effort lap, he repeated his Turn 12 error.

The championship leader’s car sported an unusual aerodynamic measuring device, with a sensor mounted to the front of the monocoque that as not present on Piastri’s car.

Leclerc’s effort came on a scrubbed set of tyres, suggesting the soft rubber was hanging on and indicated a mistake from Hamilton in the final third earlier on.

Piastri managed a 1:36.460s with his soft-tyre run, while a somewhat scrappy lap from Norris left him slightly quicker with a 1:35.258s.

Neither McLaren driver had shone, with the squad hardly featuring towards the top of the timesheets throughout the session.

Ferrari and Red Bull had, with Mercedes showing for a time, while Gasly and Alex Albon hinted at promising pace for Alpine and Williams respectively.

Albon rose to second by the chequered flag, just 0.166s away from Leclerc, heading the Red Bull pair of Tsunoda in third and Verstappen fourth.

The came Carlos Sainz in the second Williams, ahead of Norris, Hadjar, Piastri, Russell, and Kimi Antonelli to round out the top 10.

Las Vegas Grand Prix, Free Practice 1 results

1. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 1:34.802
2. Alex Albon, Williams, 1:34.968 (+ 0.166)
3. Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull, 1:35.071 (+ 0.269)
4. Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 1:35.109 (+ 0.307)
5. Carlos Sainz, Williams, 1:35.179 (+ 0.377)
6. Lando Norris, McLaren, 1:35.258 (+ 0.456)
7. Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls, 1:35.299 (+ 0.497)
8. Oscar Piastri, McLaren, 1:35.450 (+ 0.648)
9. George Russell, Mercedes, 1:35.534 (+ 0.732)
10. Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, 1:35.538 (+ 0.736)
11. Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, 1:35.561 (+ 0.759)
12. Pierre Gasly, Alpine, 1:35.589 (+ 0.787)
13. Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls, 1:35.709 (+ 0.907)
14. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, 1:35.746 (+ 0.944)
15. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, 1:35.894 (+ 1.092)
16. Oliver Bearman, Haas, 1:35.990 (+ 1.188)
17. Esteban Ocon, Haas, 1:36.123 (+ 1.321)
18. Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber, 1:36.170 (+ 1.368)
19. Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber, 1:36.398 (+ 1.596)
20. Franco Colapinto, Alpine, 1:36.758 (+ 1.956)