Sin City Chaos: Day One Delivers Drama, Damage, and a Ferrari Surprise
With P1 running on a dark, cold Las Vegas Night, the biggest surprise of the day came courtesy of Charles Leclerc , who topped the opening session (FP1) and finished third in FP2. The Ferrari looked immediately comfortable on the cold, dusty asphalt, with Leclerc posting the first sub 1m 35s lap. This strong performance, contrasting starkly with their recent struggles on bumpy circuits, suggests Ferrari’s low-temperature setup has paid dividends. Perhaps our Senate Grand Prix clients were right in voting for Charles to win the Las Vegas Grand Prix , backing him by 30%. However, the session ended with a classic piece of F1 drama: late in FP2, Leclerc suffered a gearbox issue and parked his Ferrari, reporting that "something broke." This mechanical failure, which resulted in a red flag, is a significant headache for the Scuderia heading into Qualifying. For the championship contenders at McLaren, Friday was messy: Lando Norris endured a challenging FP1,...
