Lando Norris leads in Las Vegas in a session marked by incidents
Lando Norris stood out in the second practice session in Las Vegas, which was interrupted for 19 minutes due to a loose manhole cover.
Norris, who leads the championship with a 24-point advantage before the last three races of the season, beat Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli by 0.029 seconds on the Las Vegas Strip circuit.
Max Verstappen, 49 points behind the leader in the fight for the title, finished in ninth position, while Norris’ teammate at McLaren, Oscar Piastri, placed 14th.
The second night session was interrupted twice due to reports of a detached manhole cover at Turn 17, the last on the circuit.
These stoppages recalled the first event held here two years ago, when a manhole cover came loose and damaged Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari at 200 mph.
The one-hour session on Thursday initially stopped at 8:38 pm local time.
The FIA issued a statement that said: “Following a report from a marshal regarding a possible loose manhole cover before Turn 17, Race Control was unable to confirm this information from the available closed-circuit television.”
The session has been interrupted with a red flag as a precautionary measure and the race control personnel are currently on site evaluating the situation.
After a 16-minute delay, the pit lane reopened for the final six minutes, with the FIA stating they were confident everything was in order.
However, the cars returned to the street circuit for only three minutes when another red flag was deployed.
A second FIA statement said: “Some race control personnel remained on site when the session restarted.
They reported that the manhole cover was moving as cars passed, which led to the session ending with a red flag. More inspections are being carried out.The race in Las Vegas is the only one on the calendar promoted by the American owners of F1, Liberty Media. The international television broadcast, controlled by F1, did not show the affected part of the track during either of the two interruptions.
Interruptions contributed to a distorted timesheet, with several prominent drivers unable to set a representative lap time on the fastest soft tire compound.
The season is reaching its climax in Las Vegas, with only races left to run in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
McLaren has largely been the class of the field this year, but the street circuit on the Strip has not been a place that has suited its machinery in the previous two races held in Nevada.
In the first race of the weekend, Norris went off track twice at Turn 12 in two fast laps and finished sixth. But the Englishman, who aspires to win his first world championship, will be encouraged by his speed in the interrupted final session of the day.
