Sergio Perez has been eliminated in QI in a disastrous result for Red Bull.
The mexican driver dropped to 16th in the final seconds of qualifying, coming in nine tenths slower than teammate Max Verstappen.
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This could have huge repercussions for Red Bull’s hopes of another constructers’ championship. They entered the Las Vegas GP third in the standings, 49 pts behind leaders McLaren and 13 behind Ferrari.
“Sad times for Sergio Perez,” Sky Sports’ David Croft.
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P3 WRAP
Australia’s Oscar Piastri has recorded the second-fastest time during the third practice session (P3) at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Piastri was second behind Mercedes driver George Russell, meaning Mercedes swept the three practice sessions given Lewis Hamilton’s double on Friday.
Piastri’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris finished fourth in P3.
Three hours after the completion of P3, the drivers will hit the track for qualifying.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen could clinch the 2024 drivers’ title in Vegas this weekend, but in somewhat worrying signs, he and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez was off the pace across the three practice sessions in what were slippery conditions.
Verstappen’s hopes of clinching a fourth consecutive drivers’ world championship this weekend took a dent when Red Bull revealed they brought the wrong rear wing.
In an interview with Auto Motor und Sport, the team’s senior advisor 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 packing blunder.
“We don’t have another rear wing, a smaller rear wing, as we see on our competitors,” said Marko.
“It would be more helpful, for sure.”
He added that it was too late for the team to arrange for a more appropriate trimmed rear wing to be flown out to Las Vegas before the race on Saturday night.
Verstappen leads McLaren’s Norris by 62 points with three races remaining and needs simply to finish ahead of him in Las Vegas to become the sixth man to win four world championships.
The Dutchman, however, struggled in second practice. Verstappen tried to make light of the team’s error, in packing the wrong rear wing, and blamed his struggle on the slippery conditions and difficulty with tyre temperatures.
“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.”
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