Lando Norris bounced back and topped the second practice session for the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix which was red flagged and never really got going again.
While Norris topped the session, it has to be noted that rivals, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, could not set a time on the Soft tyres while George Russell had to abort his Soft run due the Red flag.
With 21 minutes remaining, the session was stopped with no clear reason as no driver had crashed, but then it was revealed that a manhole cover was loose at Turn 17 which required on-track inspection.
That was done and the session was restarted with almost six minutes remaining, but then moments after the driver joined the track, the session was stopped and not resumed as it seemed the problem was not solved.
Leclerc who was the first to get out on track at the time parked his Ferrari on the side of the track with gearbox issues but that had no effect on the running.
Norris managed to post a lap time of 1:33.602 on Softs before the running ended and was fastest, 0.029s clear of Kimi Antonelli who was second fastest in the Mercedes.
Leclerc's time which he set on the Mediums was good enough for third as Nico Hulkenberg was fourth fastest in the Sauber.
Next came Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson who were fifth and sixth respectively as Russell who had to abort his Soft run due to the Red flag was seventh with the lap time he set on Mediums.
Alex Albon was eighth for Williams as Verstappen was ninth with the time he set on Mediums as the four-time Formula 1 Champion was another driver denied a Soft run by the Red Flag.
Lewis Hamilton was tenth fastest as Oscar Piastri was down in 14th.
The manhole cover issue reminds us of the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, the inaugural, in its current guise, where there were issue with manholes getting loose with one striking the underfloor of Sainz's Ferrari, damaging it beyond repair.
While action was taken to avoid the issue, it has come back this time around, hopefully not as severe but as an isolated case.
Buildup towards FP2
While Ferrari emerged as the team to beat from the first practice session for the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix, conditions in that session were not really representative.
The track was very green and dusty and lap times were dropping considerably whenever an extra lap was driver around the Las Vegas track.
However, Leclerc's form cannot be ignored which also applies to McLaren's far from ideal session while the questions remains regarding Verstappen's pace while Mercedes did not seems as good as we expected given they won here back in 2024.
And while FP2 should be a representative session as it runs at the same time of day as qualifying and the race, but run came before the second 60-minute session of running started.
It will be interesting to see how teams react to the rain which, up until the session started, was not intense enough for Intermediate tyres but also enough to ruin any meaningful running on slicks.
FP2 Session Highlights
The session started in damp conditions with track temperature at 17 degrees Celsius while air temperature was 14 degrees.
And while the green light was lit at the end of the pitlane, there were no takes as the drivers remained in their cars in the respective garages.
But the Mercedes pulled the trigger and sent Russell and Antonelli on their ways out on track with Franco Colapinto, Esteban Ocon, Lawson, Ollie Bearman, and Hadjar joining them.
From the look of things, the rain did not affect the track much as there weren't any visible wet patches there. It was still slippery though.
As was the case in FP1, the times went on tumbling with every lap as names kept getting shuffled on the leader board.
Soon Hamilton, while on a flyer, had a close moment with Hulkenberg and had to take evasive action.
Norris, who was already looking better at the start of FP2, compared to the first hour of running, had a moment of oversteer which he caught.
He then went deep at Turn 14 and into the run-off area.
At the half-time-mark, Lawson was the first to bolt on the Soft tyres and went for a flying lap and posted the second fastest lap time.
His teammate, Hadjar, then locked up heavily, on Softs, into Turn 14 and ended up in the run-off area. Bearman did the same earlier at the same place but on Mediums.
Soon more drivers took on the Soft compounds as qualifying simulations were officially underway. But the Yellow flag was soon out as Leclerc messed up Turn 9 and almost hit the barriers head on. He reversed back out on track.
Then Antonelli came too close to the wall at Turn 12, but managed to keep it clean.
With 21 minutes remaining, the Red Flag was out and the cars returned back to their respective garages. That ruined Russell's lap which was a good one.
There was no apparent reason why the session was stopped, but the race control reported that they suspected a loose manhole cover and marshals went on on track to inspect it.
The session was resumed with only six minutes remaining on the clock.
But as soon as the session started, Leclerc parked his car on the side of the track reporting: "Something broke. Gearbox. Can I shift or not?"
"Do not shift," his engineer instructed.
But the session was soon Red flagged again as it seems the manhole cover at Turn 17 was not sorted. It was not restarted.
Las Vegas GP FP2 Classification
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