McLaren quickest but disrupted session leaves teams guessing: Practice data

Lando Norris set the pace on Thursday in Las Vegas but he was one of few drivers who set a lap time on the soft tyres.

The overall picture therefore remains unclear ahead of qualifying. However Norris was surprisingly upbeat about McLaren’s performance at a track they did not expect to suit them.

Teams’ 2024 performance in context

Last year the usual pace-setters McLaren and Red Bull were barred from the front two rows by Mercedes and Ferrari – plus Pierre Gasly, who was flying in his Alpine.

Teams’ progress vs 2024

Mercedes were widely tipped to perform well but Charles Leclerc got up to speed quickly on Thursday, leading the first practice session. He looked quick in the second, too, until he was struck by a gearbox fault.

Leclerc failed to complete his first qualifying simulation run on soft tyres because he went wide at turn nine. That triggered yellow flags which spoiled the soft-tyre laps of other drivers, including McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Less than half of the field managed to set flying laps on softs in second practice: both Aston Martin, Mercedes and Racing Bulls drivers plus Norris, Alexander Albon and Nico Hulkenberg. The rest were all denied the chance when the session was red-flagged twice due to problems with a manhole cover.

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First and second practice times

With the likes of Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri and the Ferrari drivers unable to set representative times, the competitive picture is far from complete.

But Norris gave McLaren an encouraging assessment of their pace: “I think we have a better feeling in the car than what we had last year, so that’s a positive, and that was felt I would say already [from] lap one of today.”

The team evaluated revised front and rear wing flaps over the first two sessions. They removed the latter for the second hour of running. Red Bull also had another update for their front wing and Verstappen looked able to match the front-runners’ laps throughout much of Thursday’s running.

The two sessions yielded more questions than answers, but there’s good reason to believe McLaren have gone some way to addressing their weakness at what was a bogey track for them in 2024.

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2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix

• McLaren quickest but disrupted session leaves teams guessing: Practice data
• Leclerc and Bortoleto cleared over practice incidents
• Return of manhole cover problem in Las Vegas ‘doesn’t bring me good memories’ – Sainz
• Piastri unsure about McLaren’s pace: “I did two laps the whole session”
• Las Vegas is “the least enjoyable street track I’ve driven” – Bearman

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