Norris quickest as second practice is red-flagged twice due to manhole cover

Lando Norris was quickest in the second practice session in Las Vegas but many of his rivals were unable to complete flying laps on soft tyres.

The session was disrupted by two stoppages which began as drivers conducted their qualifying simulation runs. Both interruptions were caused by concerns over a possible loose manhole cover on the track between turns 16 and 17.

Race control sent staff to the scene following the first stoppage. They decided the track was in a suitable condition to resume the session, but remained in the area after the cars returned to the track.

At that point they noticed the cover was moving as cars passed the scene. The decision was therefore taken to stop the session again. As there had only been six minutes left on the clock when it first restarted, there was insufficient time remaining to restart it again.

The drivers may therefore have rued their hesitancy to leave the pits when the session began. No one left the pits for the first five minutes following light rain between the two sessions. However it only took a few minutes’ running for drivers to start beating their lap times from the first session.

Most drivers did the majority of their laps on the medium tyre compound while the track was clear. Norris, George Russell and Max Verstappen exchanged the fastest time at this point.

Racing Bulls were the first team to switch to soft tyres and Liam Lawson immediately jumped up to second place. Isack Hadjar eventually beat his team mate’s time after going off at turn 14 – a corner which caught out many drivers during the session.

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Andrea Kimi Antonelli initially went quickest on the soft tyres but behind him Norris was setting quicker sector times. The McLaren driver pipped his rival by less than three-hundredths of a second.

The first red flag fell soon afterwards which brought an end to the timed laps. A similar problem with a loose drain led to serious disruption to the first day of running at the track two years ago, and caused significant damage to Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Ferrari.

2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix second practice result

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2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix

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• Leclerc and Bortoleto cleared over practice incidents
• Return of manhole cover problem in Las Vegas ‘doesn’t bring me good memories’ – Sainz
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