With just under 15°C in the air at the start of the third and final free practice session, drivers and teams found conditions similar to those of the day before to fine-tune preparations for the Grand Prix of Las Vegas. The track still presents a continuous improvement due to its urban specificities, and the entrance to the pits was widened after the difficulties encountered on Friday to negotiate it as best as possible.
In the American night, the first quarter of an hour of the session consisted of installation and tire break-in laps, already time for Sergio Pérez to complain about the handling of his RB20, while Red Bull is in difficulty with his rear wing since the start of the weekend. The Mexican then established a first benchmark still far from the expected standards, in 1'41″941.
We were clearly reluctant to take to the track too early and we had to wait until we were almost halfway through the session to see the pace pick up. Lando Norris, however, could not hit the mark straight away after shooting straight and aborting a first attempt. And it was ultimately Oscar Piastri who completed the first really significant lap in 1'35″759 with the soft tires.
Verstappen in the tough
Max Verstappen, for his part, increased the number of wheel locks and escape routes while complaining on the radio about the too rapid degradation of his tires, once again shedding light on the problems encountered by Red Bull. The Dutchman, in a position to win a fourth world title on Sunday, seemed far from thinking about this scenario by insisting on the same set of medium tires at the request of his engineer.
Verstappen without solution in Las Vegas?
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
As for the time sheet, the two Haas took the lead by putting on soft tires to prepare for qualifying, with Kevin Magnussen notably standing out in 1'34″883. A mark improved immediately by the Mercedes of George Russell then Lewis Hamilton, in 1'34″341, on a tarmac constantly evolving and already giving a glimpse of a qualifying session where it will be necessary to take the track at the right time.
Red Bull put on soft tires on its two cars and Max Verstappen regained a little confidence, even setting the new best time in 1'34″137 to move from last to first provisional position. Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Oscar Piastri and George Russell (1'33″570) all did better in the process, but this waltz of the clock was interrupted by a red flag, caused by the immobilization of Lance Stroll due to an Aston Martin letting out smoke.
The session resumed with only… one minute remaining! Everyone returned to the track in order to try a starting procedure, with the exception of Sergio Pérez, trapped by the red light while he was last in the queue. The ranking did not change, leaving George Russell in the lead with limited visibility of the hierarchy due to the red flag.
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