Sainz’s Ferrari crawled to a stop between the Bellagio and Paris hotels on the Strip. His on-board camera showed that his Ferrari had apparently been immobilized by a bump in the road.
Television cameras later showed what appeared to be severe damage to the front part of Sainz’s floor, with the FIA confirming that a drain cover was suspected to be the culprit.
FP1 is therefore not restarted to ensure the circuit is resolved. This will include further inspection of the other drains around the circuit and further spot welding of those at risk of further incidents occurring.
“After inspection, it was the concrete frame around a manhole cover that had failed,” the FIA said in a statement.
“We now have to check all the other manhole covers, which will take some time. We will discuss with the local circuit engineering team how long the resolution will take and will update the schedule to reflect any resulting changes.”
Of the other drivers affected, Esteban Ocon will receive a new chassis as he also hit the drain cover along the strip during the red flag.
With no other support categories, it is possible that the FIA will extend either the FP2 or FP3 sessions to make up for the loss of racing.
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Pierre Gasly, Alpine A523
This mirrors the abandonment of opening practice at the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, when George Russell’s Williams suffered serious road damage on the way to Turn 3 after hitting a loose drain cover.
Russell was forced to miss practice 2 this weekend as he was issued with a new chassis and the faulty drain cover appeared to be an anomaly compared to the others on the circuit.
Haas also received compensation for a drain-related incident in 2017, when a “welding defect” on a drain in Sepang caused Romain Grosjean to crash in FP2 of the Malaysian GP.
During the drivers’ first laps on the Las Vegas street circuit, times dropped quickly as the drivers became familiar with the route. Valtteri Bottas started the first timed lap with a time of 1:50.227, but the bar quickly dropped as several drivers lowered the bar – Charles Leclerc finished the first five minutes with a time of 1:44.019.
Leclerc’s teammate Sainz then caused the unwelcome break in the first exploratory laps, which ended the session after 20 minutes.
Television cameras appeared to show severe damage to the front part of Sainz’s floor, with a drain cover believed to be the cause of the damage. FIA stewards Garry Connolly and Derek Warwick checked the damage to Sainz’s car.