Championship leader Lando Norris went fastest in the second practice for the Las Vegas Grand Prix in a session disrupted by two red flags, with a loose manhole cover once again causing problems.
Norris, who enjoys a 24-point lead over McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in the driver standings, completed his hot lap just before trouble struck the Las Vegas Strip.
Norris was quickest around the 6.2km street circuit with a lap of one minute and 33.602 seconds – 0.029s ahead of Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli.
Moments later, the session was red-flagged to check a manhole cover. Cars returned to the track with six minutes remaining, time enough for Charles Leclerc of Ferrari to end his session early with a gearbox issue, before a final red flag definitively curtailed the action.
The inaugural race at the venue in 2023 was upended just nine minutes into the first practice session when a loose cover damaged the underbody of Carlos Sainz Jr.'s car. It took more than two hours to fix the loose cover and inspect the entire circuit which utilises parts of the iconic Las Vegas Strip.
The next practice didn't begin until after 2am, lasted until 4am by which time all spectators had been sent home.
There were no issues last year and Thursday's first practice was clean with Leclerc leading the session. Trouble came with about 20 minutes left in the second session when a marshal reported a possible loose maintenance cover near Turn 17.
The FIA red flagged the practice because race control could not find video footage to determine if there was a problem. The red flag allowed race control personnel to physically examine the site.
Inspectors stayed at the site when practice resumed and reported the cover was moving as cars passed over it. The red flag was again thrown, ending the session. The FIA said inspections will continue ahead of qualifying.
“We didn't manage to get too much from FP2 given the disruption, but we did get a slightly better feeling than in FP1,” said Norris.
“We made some good progress and we've got a reasonable feeling altogether. Some positives to build on and some areas to try to improve going into tomorrow.”
Leclerc was third in a session where many of the drivers did not have a soft tyre run, including Piastri, who was 14th and 0.891 adrift of title rival Norris.
Australian Piastri, who was 34 points clear in the standings after winning the Dutch Grand Prix in August, has not managed a podium finish in the past five races.
While Norris cannot secure the world championship crown this weekend, he could doom the repeat bid of four-time defending champion Max Verstappen, the Dutchman entering 49 points adrift.
Verstappen was ninth in his Red Bull in the second session, 0.503 off the pace.
A lack of grip marked the opening session on the Las Vegas strip as many cars skidded or failed to brake in some corners, Norris touching a wall but getting away with it.
