Max Verstappen's F1 title hopes hit after Red Bull bring wrong car part for Las Vegas GP

Lewis Hamilton tops both practice sessions as rear-wing error costs Dutchman

Red Bull's Max Verstappen with team principal Christian Horner during practice at the Las Vegas GP. Reuters

Max Verstappen's hopes of clinching a fourth consecutive drivers' world championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix this weekend took a big hit on Friday as Red Bull revealed they brought the wrong rear wing to the race.

Team's senior adviser Helmut Marko said Red Bull were losing up to six-tenths of a second on the main straight, the Las Vegas Boulevard leading to Caesars Palace, after a mistake in packaging.

“We don't have another rear wing, a smaller rear wing, as we see on our competitors,” Marko told Auto Motor und Sport. “It would be more helpful, for sure.”

He added that it was too late to arrange for a more appropriate trimmed rear wing to be flown out to Las Vegas.

Verstappen leads McLaren's Lando Norris by 62 points with three races remaining and needs to just finish ahead of him in Las Vegas to become the sixth man to win four world championships.

The Dutchman, however, struggled in second practice, finishing 17th in slippery conditions on the cold, dry and dusty circuit where the three-time champion won last year's race.

Verstappen tried to make light of the team's error and blamed his struggle on the slippery conditions.

“The issue for us is definitely tyre-related as we have no grip and it feels like driving on ice,” he said.

“We struggled to make the tyres work, especially over one lap and we were quite far off with the pace.”

Hamilton shines

Lewis Hamilton bounced back from his Brazil horror show to complete an impressive practice double.

Having said he wanted to quit Mercedes in the aftermath of a disappointing 10th-placed finish in Interlagos a two weeks ago, Hamilton first saw off teammate George Russell by 0.396 seconds in the opening running, and then McLaren's Lando Norris by 0.011 sec later in the day, to head both sessions.

Norris must take at least three points out of Verstappen's 62-point championship lead to extend the title battle. Verstappen was 17th in second practice, two seconds off Hamilton's pace, while Carlos Sainz finished fourth for Ferrari, one place ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton, who is joining Ferrari next season, had said he was prepared to cut short his 12-year Mercedes career, which has yielded six of his record-equalling seven world titles, after a torrid afternoon at the rain-hit Brazilian GP.

“We all know that Lewis wears his heart on the sleeve,” said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff between practice sessions.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was in top form at the Las Vegas GP practice. AFP

“It was such a bad experience for him, that whole race weekend in Brazil, and particularly the Sunday, he said something that wasn't, in a way, unusual.

“Now, this time was probably particularly bad. There are three races to go. He announced at the beginning of the year that he was joining Ferrari, and I am proud how we have achieved to maintain the professional relationships and we have given him a tool that is not good enough.”

Hamilton ended a two-and-a-half-year winless streak at the British Grand Prix in July, but he is seventh in the world championship, 203 points behind Verstappen and a place and two points back from Russell.

But the 39-year-old rolled back the years to lay down the marker in the cold desert air which appeared to play to Mercedes' strengths.

“I am feeling pretty good,” said Hamilton. “That is the first time I have had a day like that this year. The car was feeling really good in P1 and in P2 less so. We have work to do overnight.

“It is difficult to know exactly where we are and why we are where we are but I am really enjoying driving the track. We will see whether the car is still the same tomorrow.

“It was nice to get consecutive sectors and the car not throwing me off. I am feeling good in myself. As I said heading into this weekend, I know it is not my driving.”