Russell leads Piastri in Las Vegas FP3, Lawson 18th

Mercedes’ strong run of pace across practice at the Las Vegas Grand Prix has continued, with George Russell topping FP3 this afternoon.

Russell’s 1:33.570 came late in proceedings to jump ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri moments before a red flag was called when Lance Stroll came to a halt on the track with seven minutes to run.

The delay, albeit brief, implicated several flying laps, including Charles Leclerc, brining the likes of Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto into the top ten.

The session would resume with less than one minute on the clock, leaving teams and drivers with no time to complete a final flyer but enabling them to complete a practice start on the grid.

Sergio Perez was denied that opportunity, failing to take to the track in time before the session ended after sitting at the back of the queue of competitors waiting to re-join.

As was the case on Friday, poor track conditions greeted the field, with a slippery and dusty surface bringing limited track action over the opening 20 minutes.

Once the action ramped up, so did the track, and times tumbled throughout the session.

Russell’s 1:33.570 came inside the final ten minutes to better Piastri’s best, which was set only moments earlier. Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen completed the top five.

The latter battled on medium tyres for much of the opening stint, saying his car was undriveable and he was going to crash before returning on softs and immediately climbing the leaderboard.

He led Lewis Hamilton, who topped both of Friday’s sessions, Albon, Colapinto, a+Kevin Magnussen, and Pierre Gasly, who completed the top ten.

Kiwi star Liam Lawson completed 18 laps to place 18th, ahead of Stroll and Guanyu Zhou. He was three-tenths behind teammate Yuki Tsunoda, albeit after both were caught out by the red flag.

Leclerc looked as if he was on to challenge towards the top before the intervention left him 12th, one place to the good of Sergio Perez, who battled similar issues to his teammate Max Verstappen.

Formula 1 returns with qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix at 7.00 pm NZST before the race at the same time on Sunday.

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Las Vegas Grand Prix FP3 Results