F1 | FP2 | Las Vegas GP | Norris tops the timings in a red flagged session - Motorsport

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Round 22 of the 2025 F1 season saw Norris top the timings in a red flagged FP2 at the F1 Las Vegas GP. Full report and results here.

In FP1, it was Charles Leclerc who set the benchmark, topping the session ahead of Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda. Both Red Bull drivers finished inside the top four, showing strong early pace around the high-speed street layout.

McLaren, however, faced a tougher opening session. Lando Norris clipped the wall and abandoned his initial push laps, while Oscar Piastri remained in the garage as the team trialled new components ahead of the weekend.

FP2 gets underway

The first five minutes of FP2 passed with drivers remaining in their garages, as light drizzle at the start of the session kept them waiting. Once conditions improved, Alpine and Haas headed out first, with teams opting for the medium compound tyre.

When the times began to roll in, Verstappen was initially quickest, setting a 1:36.029, just one tenth ahead of Russell. That didn’t last long, however, as Antonelli found more pace and moved to the top of the standings by two tenths.

With the 2024 pole time in the 1:32s, teams and drivers knew there was still significant performance to unlock. Earlier damp patches continued to affect grip in the opening phase of the session, slowing progress toward those benchmark times.

McLaren considerably better than in FP1

Norris and Piastri climbed closer to the sharp end of the leaderboard, with Norris briefly leading his McLaren teammate by just 0.027s. The order continued to shuffle, and Russell soon moved to the top as lap times dipped into the 1:34s range.

Beaman locked up going into a braking zone, and moments later Norris suffered a similar issue, flat-spotting his tyres in the process.

Leclerc was leading the timings at the halfway mark, with Lawson on the soft compounds moving into P2. Hadjar ran wide bringing out the yellow flags briefly again.

With all drivers now making the swap to the soft compound, Norris improved and moved into the 1.33s, with Antonelli following and Leclerc in P3.

Leclerc understeered and managed to stop his Ferrari just before hitting the wall.

Red Flag on track

Just as Russell was setting purple sectors on the soft tyre, a red flag was called for a possible loose manhole cover before Turn 17.

The FIA announced, “Following a marshal report of a possible loose manhole cover before Turn 17, Race Control were unable to confirm this information from the CCTV available. The session has been red flagged as a precautionary measure and Race Control personnel are currently on site assessing the situation.”

Race control quickly threw the Red Flag, mindful of the incident two years ago when Carlos Sainz ran over a loose drain cover and destroyed his power unit.

Once they checked the track, the session resumed, and the cars returned to the track with six minutes remaining. Leclerc had an issue with his gearbox, parking up behind the barrier at Turn 5 on his out lap.

The green flag only lasted a few minutes, as race control red flagged the session for track maintenance. Many drivers didn’t get their soft tyre runs in, with the last 20 minutes of the session heavily effected by the Red Flags.

“Some Race Control personnel remained on-site when the session was restarted. They reported that the manhole cover was moving as cars passed over it, which led to the session being ended under red-flag conditions. Further inspections are underway,” said the FIA in a statement on the final red flag.