Mercedes remains fastest as Russell tops red-flagged FP3

George Russell ensured Mercedes claimed a clean sheet of Las Vegas Grand Prix Formula 1 practice with the fastest time as a late red flag cut short the hour-long race.

The Briton claimed 1m33.570s in the final 10 minutes of the session, which went unbeaten when Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin stalled at the exit of Turn 12 to bring about a break in the session.

A red light remained on at Stroll’s T-cam as his car appeared to shut down, requiring time to clear to ensure the marshals could drive the car away to safety. This left only one minute in the session’s runtime when it eventually resumed, so there were no further improvements.

In the quiet first 15 minutes, Sergio Perez was the only driver with a time on the board; the Mexican noted that the circuit was “nowhere” in terms of grip compared to the end of Thursday’s FP2 session.

His medium tire lap was easily beaten by Yuki Tsunoda’s efforts on soft tracks, which began a long period of continuous track evolution as the circuit would once again come to the drivers.

Oscar Piastri then pulled the times down to 1m35s, leading to a subsequent battle for the top spot between Charles Leclerc and Kevin Magnussen.

Thursday’s practice leaders Mercedes then resumed their grip at the top as Lewis Hamilton set a 1m34.565s, which Russell beat by 0.09s on his follow-up effort. Hamilton returned the favor but Russell came back on top.

Max Verstappen briefly held the top spot after spending most of the session tumbling on the medium, minimal-grip tire – a scenario he branded ‘undriveable’ – and the Dutchman posted a lap of 1m34.137s, noting the improvement.

But this was quickly beaten as the rest of the field began to open up their performance runs; Carlos Sainz captured 1m33.918s, but Russell finally beat Hamilton’s FP2 benchmark with 1m33.570s.

Piastri got ahead of Sainz to go second fastest, while Lando Norris was fourth fastest behind the Ferrari driver. Verstappen’s effort was good enough for fifth as Hamilton did not gain a late time on the board before the red flag.

Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto placed their Williams cars in seventh and eighth, as Magnussen and Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.

Pictures from Las Vegas GP Practice

F1 Las Vegas GP – FP3 Results: