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F1 Las Vegas GP: Russell tops FP3 for Mercedes as Stroll red flag halts late running

George Russell ensured Mercedes claimed a clean sweep of Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix practice sessions with the fastest time, as a late red flag truncated the hour-long running.

The Briton claimed a 1m33.570s in the final 10 minutes of the session, which went unbeaten as Lance Stroll's Aston Martin ground to a halt on the exit of Turn 12 to bring out a pause in the session.

A red light remained on by Stroll's T-cam as his car appeared to shut down, which required time to clear to ensure the marshals could wheel the car away to safety. This left just a minute in the session's run-time when it was eventually resumed, so there were no further improvements.

In a quiet first 15 minutes, Sergio Perez was the only driver with a time on the board; the Mexican remarked that the circuit was "nowhere" in terms of grip versus the end of Thursday's FP2 session.

His medium-tyre lap was easily beaten by Yuki Tsunoda's effort on softs, which began a long period of continual track evolution as the circuit again needed to come to the drivers.

Oscar Piastri then drew the times into the 1m35s, which prompted a subsequent battle over top spot between Charles Leclerc and Kevin Magnussen.

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24 (Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images)

Thursday practice leader Mercedes then resumed its grasp at the top, as Lewis Hamilton set a 1m34.565s, which Russell beat by 0.09s on his follow-up effort. Hamilton returned the favour, but Russell made his way back to the top.

Max Verstappen briefly held top spot after spending most of the session floundering on the medium tyre with minimal grip - a scenario he rendered 'undriveable' - and the Dutchman posted a 1m34.137s lap, noting the improvement.

But this was swiftly beaten as the rest of the field started to open up their performance runs; Carlos Sainz captured a 1m33.918s, but Russell finally beat Hamilton's FP2 benchmark with a 1m33.570s. 

Piastri got ahead of Sainz to go second fastest, while Lando Norris was fourth fastest behind the Ferrari driver. Verstappen's effort was good enough for fifth, as Hamilton did not get a late time on the board before the red flag.

Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto put their Williams cars in seventh and eighth, as Magnussen and Pierre Gasly completed the top 10. 

F1 Las Vegas GP - FP3 results

   
1
 - 
4
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Chassis Engine Laps Time Interval km/h
1 United Kingdom G. Russell Mercedes 63 Mercedes Mercedes 18

1'33.570

  238.576
2 Australia O. Piastri McLaren 81 McLaren Mercedes 14

+0.215

1'33.785

0.215 238.029
3 Spain C. Sainz Ferrari 55 Ferrari Ferrari 16

+0.348

1'33.918

0.133 237.692
4 United Kingdom L. Norris McLaren 4 McLaren Mercedes 14

+0.438

1'34.008

0.090 237.464
5 Netherlands M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1 Red Bull Red Bull 17

+0.567

1'34.137

0.129 237.139
6 United Kingdom L. Hamilton Mercedes 44 Mercedes Mercedes 17

+0.771

1'34.341

0.204 236.626
7 Thailand A. Albon Williams 23 Williams Mercedes 15

+0.837

1'34.407

0.066 236.461
8 Argentina F. Colapinto Williams 43 Williams Mercedes 15

+1.153

1'34.723

0.316 235.672
9 Denmark K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team 20 Haas Ferrari 13

+1.313

1'34.883

0.160 235.275
10 France P. Gasly Alpine 10 Alpine Renault 15

+1.335

1'34.905

0.022 235.220
11 Germany N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team 27 Haas Ferrari 15

+1.338

1'34.908

0.003 235.213
12 Monaco C. Leclerc Ferrari 16 Ferrari Ferrari 15

+1.371

1'34.941

0.033 235.131
13 Mexico S. Perez Red Bull Racing 11 Red Bull Red Bull 19

+1.491

1'35.061

0.120 234.834
14 France E. Ocon Alpine 31 Alpine Renault 14

+1.890

1'35.460

0.399 233.852
15 Spain F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing 14 Aston Martin Mercedes 16

+2.368

1'35.938

0.478 232.687
16 Japan Y. Tsunoda RB 22 RB Red Bull 18

+2.645

1'36.215

0.277 232.017
17 Finland V. Bottas Sauber 77 Sauber Ferrari 14

+2.842

1'36.412

0.197 231.543
18 New Zealand L. Lawson RB 30 RB Red Bull 18

+2.974

1'36.544

0.132 231.227
19 Canada L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing 18 Aston Martin Mercedes 13

+3.380

1'36.950

0.406 230.258
20 China Z. Guanyu Sauber 24 Sauber Ferrari 16

+3.418

1'36.988

0.038 230.168
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