It happened again: Las Vegas Grand Prix Free Practice 2 was marred by another incident with a manhole. This time, thankfully, there wasn't many consequences, other than bringing out two red flags in the last 20 minutes that meant many drivers couldn't change tyres when the rain started to pour, meaning that most times are practically useless.
The cause of the problematic practice session was a suspected loose drain cover at turn 17, inspected by race control for 15 minutes. The practice was resumed later with six minutes remaining.
Lando Norris achieved the fastest lap, and Kimi Antonelli, Charles Leclerc and Nico Hulkenberg followed him. Verstappen, ninth, and Piastri, 14th.
What happened in Las Vegas GP 2023?
This incident echoed what happened in 2023, the first year the race took place in the urban circuit around the Strip, when Carlos Sainz hit a loose metal cover on the track surface, coming from a drain cover. Sainz was forced to change car due to the damage, one more than the two permitted, which caused him to receive a 10-place grid penalty. What is worse, the drain cover perforated his car and came very close to his leg, which could have caused a fatal accident.
Two years later, another manhole cover gets in the way of the proper development of the race. Let's hope nothing else happens in the qualifying race and race this weekend...
Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying takes place on Friday at 20:00 local time (5 AM CET, 4 AM GMT on Saturday, November 21), and the race will be Saturday night at the same time (so 5:00 AM CET, 4:00 AM GMT on Sunday, November 23).