Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz set the initial pace as Formula 1 finally got to work in Las Vegas, in a delayed but extended second practice on the Strip during the early hours of Friday morning.
Fernando Alonso was third for Aston Martin, and there were no problems during the session either in terms of the track conditions or through any significant yellow or red flag interruptions.
It was a slightly subdued start for Red Bull with Sergio Perez fourth and Max Verstappen only sixth fastest, while Lance Stroll pipped Lewis Hamilton and Alex Albon to P8 by the end of the 90-minute practice.
So let's try this again: after the disastrous start to F1's flagship Vegas weekend when first practice was aborted after just nine minutes before a water valve drain cover damaged the cars of Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon, track repairs finally enabled race control to get second practice underway underway at 2.30am local time, with no fans in attendance after the grandstands and hospitality areas were closed for "logistical' reasons.
Once the drivers were prodded awake, first out at the start of the now 90-minute session were the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on soft tyres, together with Ocon after Alpine successfully completed repairs on his wounded car. Rules stopping teams from using a second survival cell on the same day had been swerved by the clocks having gone past midnight into Friday morning. Sainz was similarly able to take part, despite fuming over the at-least ten-place grid penalty he had been handed for Sunday for replacing engine components damaged by the errant drain cover.
Piastri finished his opening lap with a time of 1:43.832s but Norris was in 'limp home' home with a cooling issue. Max Verstappen went two seconds faster and to the top of the timesheets, with he and Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez starting on mediums despite the chilly night time conditions. Soft-shod Sainz quickly channeled his frustration into a new top time of 1:39.891s ahead of team mate Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Perez and George Russell.
Hamilton had a brief spell on top for Mercedes just 0.041s ahead of the latest improvement for Leclerc, but then it was Verstappen back in charge with a time of 1:38.625s. With the track being cleaned up and rubber being laid down all the time, times were falling fast with Leclerc soon cutting three tenths off Verstappen's time. It didn't help Lance Stroll, who ended up spinning at turn 15 while other drivers were struggling into the heavy-braking turn 12 and still more were finding turn 1 hard to take.
A little over 20 minutes into the session and Verstappen was quickest again on 1:38.209s ahead of the Ferraris. Further back there had been strong runs from the likes of Haas' Kevin Magnussen and Williams duo Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant putting them into the top ten, but with the real qualifying runs yet to take place. Albon subsequently shot up to P3 splitting Leclerc and Sainz, while Norris had returned to action and was straight into seventh.
Verstappen switched to softs but he locked up and went awry at turn 12 on his first push lap. Perez fared better, but it was Ferrari once again on top with Sainz' 1:36.984s putting him 0.245s ahead of Leclerc. Verstappen did better with his next run, but even so could still only manage P2. Leclerc's next run put the Monegasque fractionally back ahead of Sainz; Verstappen still couldn't catch them with his next run. Another push lap by Hamilton saw the Mercedes split the Ferrari duo with Albon also flying into third, meaning that less than a tenth of a second covered the top four cars at the halfway point.
Alonso made that five by going quickest of all in the Aston Martin, three thousandths ahead of Leclerc, but Verstappen wasn't done yet and went faster still on 1:36.307s. That was half a hundredth ahead of the latest from Sainz, and then it was Leclerc' turn to make a quantum leap by finding a whopping six tenths improvement on the rest. Alonso and Sainz were close behind but Verstappen couldn't match that pace. There were also strong laps from Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg in what was proving to be a second 'pulse' of qualifying laps that also saw Stroll into the top ten ahead of Norris and Russell.
Leclerc found more pace to set a new target time of 1:35.265s ahead of Sainz, while Alonso ran wide at turn 12 in his zeal to match them. Elsewhere other drivers such as Hamilton were now working on higher-fuel long-distance runs on mediums for the remainder of the session. But as the chequered flag came out, the headline news was there had been no further problems with the track and the second session had run without any significant incidents or stoppages - although Verstappen was among those to have another late run-off.
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