Hamilton Tops Las Vegas Practice as Verstappen Faces Challenges

Lewis Hamilton led both practice sessions on the opening day of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, setting the fastest times ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris and his Mercedes teammate George Russell. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen struggled and ended the day in 17th place, a significant two seconds off the pace.

Hamilton clocked a best time of 0.396 seconds faster than Russell in the first session, while in the second session, he was just 0.011 seconds ahead of Norris. Hamilton, reflecting on his performance, stated, "It's the first time I've had a day like that this year. The car was feeling really good in P1. In P2 less so."

Verstappen, who can secure his fourth championship this weekend, faced difficulties with tire performance and was unable to complete a lap on the fastest soft tires. He explained, "We struggled a lot with making the tyres work, over one lap especially. Long runs started off a bit more competitive but even there we need to fine-tune a few things." Verstappen acknowledged that the issues were mainly related to tire grip, describing the car's behavior as "like driving on ice."

Despite Verstappen's struggles, he can still clinch the title if he does not lose more than two points to Norris in Saturday's race (06:00 GMT Sunday).

Russell, who finished third in both sessions, also weighed in, saying, "Incredible day and I'd love to tell you why and to be honest we are scratching our heads a little bit." He emphasized that while Mercedes had been fast, it was only practice and the conditions on a low-grip street track were likely to change significantly as the weekend progressed.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff cautioned against over-interpreting their pace, noting that performance often drops as grip increases. However, Russell pushed back, stating, "The perception of us losing performance is not quite fair. It's more the competitors don't use their high power and might be running a bit more fuel than us on Friday so historically they have been sandbagging a little bit more."