Charles Leclerc took advantage of McLaren's expected low-grip Las Vegas struggles to set the early pace in first practice for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver, runner-up in the inaugural race around Sin City in 2023, posted a leading time of 1:34.80s, finishing 0.166s clear of the surprising figure of Williams' Alex Albon in second, whilst Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda enjoyed a rare session in finished ahead of ahead of team-mate Max Verstappen.
For McLaren, the session was a difficult one, notably for championship leader Lando Norris, who kissed a wall at one stage, had an issue with the floor soon after, and was twice forced to take to the run-off area at the Turn 12 left-hander as he explored the limits on soft tyres.
It was third time lucky on the softs for Norris, albeit with a lap that was almost half a second adrift of Leclerc, with team-mate Oscar Piastri a further two-tenths off the pace in the eighth.
Result Free practice 1 - Las Vegas
As the sun set and neon lights began to glow, so the temperature began to dip rapidly.
When the session started, the track temperature was just 19°C, whilst the air temperature was five degrees lower.
On a dirty, dusty, low-grip track, the times naturally tumbled as the circuit evolved, and the lead changed hands numerous times.
After the opening 15 minutes, Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg led the way with a 1:37.370s on the hard tyres, but was soon dislodged by Verstappen by almost nine-tenths of a second on Pirelli's mediums.
A later lap saw Verstappen lower his own mark to 1:36.043s before Leclerc became the first driver to dip below 96 seconds, doing so by just 0.046s.
Verstappen, though, soon regained top spot by a quarter of a second at a time when Norris kissed a wall with his right-rear tyre, forcing him back to the pits for a check over.
At the halfway point, Verstappen held sway from Leclerc by 0.178s, with last year's race winner, Russell, a third of a second back ahead of Tsunoda, Carlos Sainz in his Williams, and Lewis Hamilton in his Ferrari, the latter 0.399s down.
Following a left-rear wheel rim concern for Hamilton, he returned to the track on the soft tyres to go quickest with a 1:35.561s, just over half a second off the pace of his leading FP1 time from last year.
Moments later, that was comfortably beaten by Leclerc by 0.280s. The Monégasque further improved with a 1:35.121s. Either side, Hamilton purpled the first sector but encountered issues in the second on both occasions, forcing him to back off.
On his opening lap on softs, Verstappen edged out Leclerc by 0.012s. A follow-up lap by the latter saw him fall short by 0.004s.
Surprisingly, Tsunoda then popped up ahead by 0.038s before Leclerc became the first driver into the 1:34s with a 1:34.802s, which proved to be the leading time when the session ended.
For a third time, Hamilton purpled the first sector, but again failed to follow through in the middle, leaving him 11th at the finish, 0.759s behind his team-mate.
Verstappen, 49 points adrift of Norris heading into the weekend, finished three-tenths down on Leclerc in fourth, and 0.070s up on Carlos Sainz as Williams showed a turn of speed.
Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar sandwiched the McLaren pair in seventh, with the Mercedes duo of Russell and Kimi Antonelli seemingly with work to do as they completed the top 10 within four-thousandths of a second of one another, but over seven-tenths down.
Alpine's Franco Colapinto brought up the rear, almost a second back.
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