Longrun analysis | Who will be the team to beat in Las Vegas?

22 November at 10:36

Last update 22 November at 11:17

Cas van de Kleut

The first two free practice sessions in Las Vegas are over. During the second practice session, the teams focused on the long runs. It was a difficult day in the office for Red Bull Racing. Are they slower than their rivals in both the short and long-distance runs? We have a look at whos setting the pace in Las Vegas.

Red Bull's first long runs:

Verstappen's first long run came at the end of the session on the medium tyre. He started his first lap with a 1:39:524. Eventually, the laps got gradually faster at first, up to 1:38:504, after which the times slowed down again. In the end, the Dutchman averaged a 1:38:861.

His teammate, Sergio Perez, like Verstappen, also did his long run on mediums. He started his long run with a slightly slower time, but on his first normal lap he drove a 1:39:200. Then, he too drove progressively faster laps, eventually even achieving a 1:38:393. Finally, over his laps under 1:40, he averaged a 1:38:788.

McLaren and Ferrari with fast long runs:

At McLaren, things went a little bit better. Lando Norris drove only three real long run laps, as did Verstappen on the mediums. In these, he drove a 1:38:208, among others. His average over the three laps was 1:38:605, making him more than 1.5-tenths faster than Perez. Piastri went even faster than Norris. He too drove on the medium tyre. In his fastest lap, he drove a 1:37:395. In seven long run laps, he averaged a 1:38:543.

Ferrari was also a bit faster than Red Bull in the long run. Both Ferrari drivers, like the drivers at Red Bull and McLaren, drove on the mediums. Charles Leclerc drove six real laps during his long run. His fastest time was a 1:37:967. On average, he was faster than Verstappen and Perez. Indeed, over six laps, he drove an average lap time of 1:38:716. Sainz, for his part, was even faster. He drove an average of 1:38:577, with the fastest time being 1:37:852.

In terms of speed over one lap, 'The Silver Arrows' were the fastest twice. In the long run, this was not the case. Indeed, George Russell averaged a 1:38:822 on the mediums, with a fastest lap time of 1:38:148. Lewis Hamilton was the only driver among the top teams not to drive on mediums. He did his long run on the soft tyre, but was the slowest of the bunch in doing so. On average, he drove a 1:38:907. His fastest lap was a 1:38:651.

This article was written in collaboration with Toby Nixon