Problems with the covers at the Las Vegas Grand Prix: Practice session interrupted
The second practice session for the Las Vegas Grand Prix was interrupted twice on Thursday night due to concerns about a loose maintenance cover near Turn 17. The stoppages recalled a similar incident that occurred at the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix two years ago, during which a water valve cover came loose on The Strip and damaged the underside of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari. The 2023 incident caused the first practice session to end early and the second to be delayed until the early hours of the following day. The first interruption on Thursday occurred as a precaution after a track marshal reported his concern that a maintenance cover appeared to be loose. The session suspension allowed race control personnel to visit Turn 17 and inspect the maintenance cover. The FIA issued a statement 15 minutes later in which it showed “confidence that everything is in adequate condition to resume the session”. However, in the final stages of the session, a second red flag was displayed amid more concerns about the cover, ultimately exhausting the time of the second practice.Loose maintenance covers are not unusual in street circuits and tend to come loose due to the forces generated by the underside of F1 cars, which are designed to generate low pressure and suck the car towards the track.Some race control personnel remained on the circuit when the session was restarted. They reported that the manhole cover was moving as the cars passed over it, which led to the session being stopped under red flag conditions. Further inspections are being carried out.
FIA Statement
Although the premature end of the second practice on Thursday marked the end of the F1 program for the night, the F1 Academy was able to carry out its qualifying session 32 minutes after the end of FP2 with only two minutes delay compared to the scheduled start time.
