Lewis Hamilton fastest across the opening day in Las Vegas GP

Lewis Hamilton fastest across the opening day in Las Vegas GP

22nd November 2024 0 By Kamron Kent

Mercedes’ seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton has completed a clean sweep of fastest lap times on the opening day of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. 

Feature image credit: Mercedes F1

As the night progressed from the opening practice session, the Las Vegas Strip Circuit remained fully lit under the powerful floodlights for another hour of practice ahead of the Grand Prix. 

Grip remained at a premium, due to the cold conditions and the dusty circuit, many drivers were forced to take to the run-off areas to avoid a collision with the barrier. Hamilton locked up early on into the first corner whilst Haas’ Kevin Magnussen locked up at the end of the iconic strip.

Hamilton had opened up the weekend as the fastest driver in the first free practice session and the seven-time world champion followed this up with the fastest lap in FP2.  

The seven-time world champion topped the timing boards with a 1m 33.825 seconds as his teammate George Russell rounded out the top three, in third. McLaren’s Lando Norris split the two Mercedes with the second-fastest lap, 0.011s off Hamilton. 

The two Ferraris completed the top five with Carlos Sainz out in front of Charles Leclerc, a maximum of 0.488s away from Hamilton’s pace.  

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly occupied sixth ahead of Magnussen in seventh. Magnussen’s teammate, Nico Hulkenberg completed the session down in ninth with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in between the two Haas drivers, in eighth. 

Visa Cash App RB’s Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top 10, in 10th, as the first driver to be at least one second off the pace ahead of Kick Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas who finished 11th.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon finished the session in 12th ahead of the two Aston Martin drivers of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso in 13th and 14th. Tsunoda’s teammate, Liam Lawson completed VCARB’s line-up down in 15th. 

Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu was the fifth-slowest driver, in 16th, with the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez taking up 17th and 19th respectively. 

This left the two Williams drivers of Franco Colapinto and Alexander Albon to fill in the gaps, in 18th and 20th respectively. The latter had retired mid-session due to fuel problems which forced the Thai driver to stop out on track, just before the iconic Las Vegas Sphere.  

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Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

CategoryFormula 1 Formula Series News
TagsF1 Formula 1 Las Vegas Las Vegas GP Las Vegas Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton Mercedes

About the author

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

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