George Russell topped final practice for the 2024 FIA Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix with the Mercedes driver outpacing McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
On a slippery track, Sergio Pérez got things underway with a slow Medium-tyre opener of 1:41.941. He quickly branded it “miles off” and headed for the pit lane to make changes.
While a clutch of drivers put in incomplete installation laps, the Mexican’s time remained the only one on the board but eventually, 16 minutes into the session, Verstappen headed out to sample the conditions.
The championship leader suffered a lock-up in Turn 1 of his warm-up lap but after correcting the error the Dutchman did post a time, two tenths off his team-mate.
Pérez then returned to the circuit, on the set of Mediums he began with, and that prompted others to join the fray with McLaren’s Lando Norris and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda both heading out on Soft tyres.
Pérez and Verstappen were swapping times at the top of the order, with Verstappen completing a second flyer to bring the benchmark down to 1:40.955. Norris looked set to bypass that but a mistake on his opening flyer kept him off top spot.
The Briton’s slip allowed Tsunoda to jump to P1 with a time of 1:37.517 but Norris was already into another attempt and when he crossed the line he moved up to P1 with a lap of 1:35.891.
His stay was brief, however. The title contender’s team-mate , Oscar Piastri was behind him on track and the Australian promptly vaulted to top spot with a lap of 1:35.759.
As the session approached the halfway mark, Friday’s fastest man, Lewis Hamilton arrived to split the McLarens but then he too was pushed back as Tsunoda completed another flyer to grab P2.
P1 then became a shared commodity as the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz took turns at the top along with Mercedes’ George Russell and the Haas pair of Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, with the latter becoming the first driver to dip below 1m35s in the session.
Further down the timesheet, the struggles of the Red Bull drivers continued and at the hallway point Verstappen, with 10 laps on Mediums on the board, lay in last place, almost six seconds off the pace, while Pérez was one place higher.
At the top of the order Hamilton displaced Magnussen with a lap of 1:34.565 before being demoted by Russell.
The Red Bulls then at last appeared on Soft tyres and while Pérez only jumped up to 11th initially, Verstappen found a lot more pace and he vaulted from the bottom of the table to the top thanks to a lap of 1:34.137 before reporting that the “grip felt miles better”.
The Dutchman couldn’t hold on to top spot, however, and as Russell improved again to lead Piastri, Sainz and Norris, the Red Bull driver dropped to fifth.
With six minutes remaining the red flags came out. Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin suddenly lost power and the Canadian was forced to stop at the side of the track with red lights signalling it was in an electrically unsafe condition.
The halt lasted for five minutes and when running hot underway again there was just time for the bulk of drivers to complete an out lap before stopping on the grid for practice starts.
2024 FIA Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix – Free Practice 3
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:33.570 18 238.576
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:33.785 0.215 14 238.029
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:33.918 0.348 16 237.692
4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:34.008 0.438 14 237.464
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:34.137 0.567 17 237.139
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:34.341 0.771 17 236.626
7 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:34.407 0.837 15 236.461
8 Franco Colapinto Williams/Mercedes 1:34.723 1.153 15 235.672
9 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:34.883 1.313 13 235.275
10 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:34.905 1.335 15 235.220
11 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 1:34.908 1.338 15 235.213
12 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:34.941 1.371 15 235.131
13 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:35.061 1.491 19 234.834
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:35.460 1.890 14 233.852
15 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:35.938 2.368 16 232.687
16 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 1:36.215 2.645 18 232.017
17 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari 1:36.412 2.842 14 231.543
18 Liam Lawson RB/Honda RBPT 1:36.544 2.974 18 231.227
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:36.950 3.380 13 230.258
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari 1:36.988 3.418 16 230.168
