Hamilton leads Mercedes domination in Las Vegas dustbowl

Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell surprisingly dominated the first practice session of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Just under three weeks after enduring one of the worst grand prix weekends of his storied F1 career in Brazil, Hamilton stormed back around the Las Vegas Strip Circuit to finish almost four-tenths of a second ahead of team-mate Russell.

Hamilton's final lap in the closing seconds was a 1:35.001s, still a second slower than the leading time in practice from last year, set by Russell.

But the fact Hamilton was 0.953s ahead of third-quickest Lando Norris in his McLaren was a real statement of intent from a Mercedes team that has been off the boil since F1 returned from its summer break in late August.

Hamilton and Russell duel

In the early stages, one of the main areas of concern for the drivers related to the amount of dust on the circuit, understandably so given Las Vegas' position in the middle of the Nevada desert, resulting in a severe lack of grip.

At certain times, there appeared to be a haze in the air, such was the level of dust that was floating around.

Appreciably, the times tumbled throughout the hour-long run, which was at least completed as opposed to a year ago when FP1 lasted just eight minutes after Carlos Sainz ran over a water valve cover that destroyed the underneath of his Ferrari.

It resulted in the remainder of FP1 being cancelled as all other covers had to be checked, leading to a two-and-a-half-hour delay to FP2 that started at 2.30 am local time, and took place in front of empty grandstands as the fans had to be sent home due to circuit staff exceeding their contracted hours and they had to be released from duty.

It was not a good look for F1 at the time, so 12 months on, there will have been relief nothing untoward occurred on this occasion.

The first meaningful time was posted by Hamilton with a 1:38.155s in his Mercedes, and on the medium compound Pirelli tyres, and sparking a duel with team-mate Russell, who shaved four-tenths of a second off a few minutes later.

Hamilton, though, returned to the top of the timesheet soon after, and comfortably so as he posted a 1:36.927s.

Soon after, Red Bull's Max Verstappen suffered a major lock-up at the end of the long straight incorporating The Strip. At that stage, the three-time F1 champion was eighth quickest from an early run on soft tyres, 1.429s behind Hamilton.

Just after the midway point, Norris moved into third behind the Mercedes duo, albeit almost half a second adrift before Haas' Kevin Magnussen strapped on a set of softs to usurp the Briton by a tenth of a second.

Charles Leclerc's first soft-tyre blast in his Ferrari left the Monégasque 0.085s off the pace, shortly before Hamilton suffered his own lock-up on another medium outing.

Hamilton has the last word

With his tyres warmed up in the cool night air, with temperatures 14 degrees Celsius, Leclerc moved half a second clear of Hamilton before Sainz upped the ante to move ahead of his team-mate by 0.212s.

As with the Mercedes on the mediums, Leclerc and Sainz were having their battle on the softs as Leclerc found another half a second on Sainz, although his lead was very shortlived as Norris became the first driver to dip below 96 seconds with a 1:35.954s.

When Mercedes switched to the softs, Russell proved the leading times on the mediums from earlier in the session were no fluke as the Briton moved a third of a second up on Norris.

Then it was Hamilton's turn, and he netted the top spot by 0.132s, only for Russel on his second flier to edge ahead again by 0.090s.

Hamilton, though, was not to be denied with a superb lap at the death.

Behind third-placed Norris was Leclerc, just over a second back, closely followed by Verstappen, with Sainz 1.217s down in sixth.

Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, Oscar Piastri in his McLaren, Alpine's Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez for Red Bull completed the top 10, the latter 1.535s down.