Quadruple pole battle in preparation for Las Vegas GP | RACER

McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari are all aiming to challenge for pole position on Friday evening at the Las Vegas Grand Prix after a disjointed Thursday of practice.

Red flags for a suspected loose manhole cover restricted some of the late runs in FP2 as the circuit continued to develop at a high pace, meaning a number of teams did not run a soft tire lap to gauge potential qualifying performance on the circuit’s opening day. It was Lando Norris who topped the times in the second session at a track where McLaren struggled last season, and the championship leader believes he is in better form this year.

• Norris leads the second GP training in Las Vegas after red flags disrupt order

• Leclerc runs at pace during the opening practice of the Las Vegas GP

“I think we have a better feeling in the car than last year, so that’s positive, and it was noticeable from the first lap,” said Norris. “So some good feelings.

“Obviously in the end we didn’t run much and we didn’t really ride much, but the pace is definitely there. I think it’s quite tight between a lot of people, and a lot of people haven’t even done their laps, so apart from that I think we’ve made some steps forward from FP1 to FP2, and hopefully we can do a bit more from FP2 to FP3.”

Besides teammate Oscar Piastri, Norris’ other title rival is Max Verstappen, who believes Red Bull still has some work to do but is not out of the running either.

“It went well,” said Verstappen. “It’s just a bit difficult to understand what to do with these breaks. I think we still need to improve a bit to find a bit more grip there. Plus, of course, the track is improving quite a bit every session. So we’ll try to just focus on that and see how we can use the tires for qualifying and the race.”

“It’s a lot colder here [than other low-downforce tracks Red Bull has been strong on] and the surface is very smooth. So you can’t compare them with other circuits just because there is little downforce. So it is not self-evident that you will move quickly here.”

Mercedes dominated in Las Vegas last year, and while George Russell wasn’t predicting a repeat performance, he believes the team is once again in contention.

“I think we’re in the mix,” Russell said. “I think we had to be realistic. There were a lot of expectations on us this weekend, but we have changed the car a lot since last year. That has certainly made the car a better car over the course of the season – maybe not as competitive as we were here 12 months ago, but it was close.

“There were many [competition]. Lando was fast. Verstappen and [Charles] Leclerc was fast in FP1. Kimi [Antonelli] was fast. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of teams made some minor changes to their cars this weekend based on how good we were here last year. So, like I said, I don’t want to get ahead of myself. We weren’t exactly setting the timing sheets on fire, so we have to be realistic. We’re there or around there, but certainly not a slam dunk.

With Leclerc leading the first FP1 before retiring late on Thursday evening, the Ferrari driver also sees a four-way battle developing ahead of Friday’s race at the track.

“I honestly don’t think we are in a bad place, but we have to wait and see,” Leclerc said. “I think Mercedes are very strong and of course McLaren and Red Bull are also in contention, so I think it will be tight. I just hope that we can build up from now on and fight for pole.

“But it was a positive day. I think the pace was strong… It’s all about trying to anticipate what the conditions will be like [on Friday] and making sure we start on the right foot, but I have pretty clear ideas about what I want to do with the car to improve it and we’ll see if they were the right choices.