Hamilton tops FP2 as Lawson improves to 15th

Lewis Hamilton has pipped McLaren’s Lando Norris to top Friday’s second Free Practice of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Meantime Lawson improved from 20th to 15th place, his time three seconds quicker than in FP1.

Hamilton’s 1:33.825 was over one second faster than his 1:35.001 that topped FP1 as track conditions on the slick and dusty street circuit continued to improve.

Kiwi star Liam Lawson put in another 24 laps, his best time of 1:35.671 was over three seconds faster than his FP1 effort, and saw him climb five places to 15th.

Overall, Lawson ran a trouble-free 52 laps across two sessions in his first time taking on the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

“A challenging day today, honestly,” he said.

“We started the day really slow and then we made a step up and learnt quite a lot. It’s obviously extremely cold and the track earlier was really slippery and dirty, so you’re just waiting for it to build up.

“In FP2 the track was colder but better, and we learnt things that will help us tomorrow. We have the knowledge from today to improve, so hopefully we can be punching on the back end of the top 10, but it depends on how everyone else steps up as well.”

Hamilton’s 1:33.825 came moments before a red flag was required when Alex Albon came to a halt, his Williams having battled fuel system issues for the entire session before finally calling it quits 40 minutes in.

On resumption, the majority of teams focused on longer runs until the end of the session.

Norris finished the session only 0.011 seconds behind the seven–time World Champion. George Russell made for a British sweep of the top three, nearly two-tenths behind his Mercedes teammate in third.

Carlos Sainz bettered Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc for fourth and fifth, respectively.

Surprise Sao Paulo Grand Prix podium placer Pierre Gasly was sixth, just 0.035 ahead of the first Haas of Kevin Magnussen. Oscar Piastri was eighth, pipping Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Ysunoda, who was seven-tenths faster than his Kiwi teammate.

Championship leader Max Verstappen and his teammate Sergio Perez spent the entire session on medium tyres, focussing on longer runs for the 17th and 19th fastest laps, respectively.

The Las Vegas Grand Prix returns with FP3 at 3.30 pm NZST on Saturday, ahead of qualifying at 7.00 pm. The race starts at 7.00 pm on Sunday.

Las Vegas Grand Prix FP2 Results