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Formula 1
Las Vegas GP
F1 Las Vegas GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 & Qualifying
Saturday's action from the 21st round of the 2023 Formula 1 season.
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After a tough opening day of action following FP1 being called off after eight minutes due to a dislodged water value cover that sustained major damage to Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, and then FP2 being run without fans at 2:30am local time, F1 will be targeting a smoother final practice and qualifying.
The Las Vegas GP is the penultimate race of the 2023 season and provides an all-new challenge to the teams and the drivers, on a street track built around the famous city Strip.
Final practice begins at 4:30am GMT, followed by qualifying at 8am GMT.
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Once again plenty of early runners for this session, with Russell, Verstappen, Bottas and Hamilton the only drivers biding their time in the pits.
Lights green
Q2 is go! Time to decide starting positions P11-P15. Or the top 10 pole contenders. Whatever takes your fancy.
Stroll is also under the eye of the stewards for failing to slow under yellow flags in Q1. That will be investigated after qualifying.
Both Mercedes drivers, Albon, Zhou, Gasly and Bottas have all been noted for failing to stick to the maximum delta lap time in Q1. But given that's been a theme in recent races, it usually doesn't lead to further punishment.
Replays show Verstappen and Ocon, both starting a lap late in the session, taking on each other into Turn 1. It wrecked both their laps and Ocon is duly out while Verstappen made it through. The stewards might look into that one.
Out in Q1: P16 Norris, P17 Ocon, P18 Zhou, P19 Piastri, P20 Tsunoda.
Stroll's final lap lifts him out of the drop zone and pushes Norris out in 16th. Both McLarens out in Q1!
Ricciardo makes his lap count to jump to 15th which pushes Ocon out.
Piastri also cannot improve so he is also out in Q1.
Tsunoda goes off at Turn 5 to bring out some yellow flags. That's his session done.
Into the final moments of Q1 and Piastri has this all-or-nothing lap to escape the session.
Gasly and Hulkenberg both lift themselves into the top 10 which pushes Piastri and Stroll into the danger zone.
Sainz briefly goes quickest but Leclerc duly surpasses him with a 1m33.617s. Both Ferraris look rapid around this circuit.
The bottom five with work to do are: Zhou, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Gasly and Tsunoda.
There he goes - Russell pops up to fifth, over six-tenths of a second off Leclerc's leading effort.
Russell hasn't produced a representative, full-beans lap yet so remains last. Nothing to worry about yet but he'll need to get a lap nailed pretty sharpish with under six minutes to go.
Hamilton improves to go third fastest, while Alonso and Albon also lift themselves up into the top 10.
Norris appears to get blocked by Perez on an earlier lap which forces him to back out of it, so that could land the Mexican in hot water.
Stopwatch
10 minutes to go in Q1 and we've got lap times from every runner now, as Leclerc goes top with a 1m34.072s. In the bottom five are Tsunoda, Alonso, Hamilton, Albon and Russell.
All 20 drivers are out now, as Sargeant pops in an eye-catching 1m35.061s to briefly go second before he is shuffled down to third by Verstappen.
Stopwatch
Still no sign of either Mercedes, as Leclerc sets the new top time with a 1m34.898s.
Stopwatch
The Haas pair are the first to set a lap, with Magnussen the early leader with a 1m35.968s.
No pitlane jostling in this early session, mostly because of the colder temperatures the drivers don't need to be tentative with their fresh rubber on the out-lap. Everyone is getting on with it.
Loads of early takers for this session, with 13 drivers already on the track.
Lights green
Right, here we go for Las Vegas GP qualifying! Q1 is under way!
But, due to the lower temperatures than a typical race weekend, the drivers are likely to need an extra warm-up lap before getting the most out of the soft tyres in this session.
Before the weekend there had been concerns about very cold conditions, but thankfully Vegas has remained milder than feared. The air temperature is 14.7C with the track temperature a fraction higher, so nothing to bother Pirelli's compounds.
Penalty
But another driver has a grid penalty to serve coming into qualifying: Lance Stroll. The Aston Martin driver has just been given a five-place drop for overtaking under yellow flags in FP3.
Albon's Williams is repaired and ready after a front left and rear left corner change. So we should have all 20 drivers ready and raring to go for Q1.
Penalty
Sainz comes into qualifying hamstrung as he'll serve a 10-place grid drop for exceeding his energy store allowance within his power unit pool. That was triggered after his original one being wrecked by the track's water valve cover trouble from FP1. Very unfortunate.
Russell topped final practice for Mercedes but a few drivers were denied their final quali runs by the late red flag, including Norris (11th), Leclerc (16th) and Sainz (17th).
But, thankfully, it was a relatively trouble-free FP3 earlier on, with the session only cut short by five minutes after Albon hit the wall late on which ripped a tyre off his Williams.
It has been a rollercoaster race weekend so far, and technically it is still only Friday for a few more minutes in Vegas, with FP1 cut short due to major track trouble which delayed FP2.
Green flag
Hello one and all - we are back! We're quickly approaching Las Vegas GP qualifying so let's get this party started!
Thank you for joining us for an early start this morning. As usual, we will have live text coverage of qualifying for the Las Vegas GP from 8am GMT.
To read up on everything that happened during FP3, be sure to check out the report:
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-las-vegas-gp-fp3/10548068/
Well after yesterday's shambles in FP1, some decent running for drivers and teams this morning in FP3. And an intriguing picture ahead of qualifying later today.
So there we have it, Russell fastest from Piastri and Sargeant, with Verstappen fourth and Leclerc the best of the Ferraris all the way down in P16.
And confirmation that the session will not be resumed with less than five minutes left.
Red flag
No surprises with a tyre and the Williams stranded on track, red flag.
By: Autosport Staff
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