Only 8 minutes into the first practice session, Carlo Sainz’s Ferrari stopped on track after a loose drain cover damaged his car. This became the first true hiccup in F1’s $500,000,000 Las Vegas GP. Sainz’s Ferrari brought out the red flag, which, led to another issue.

The Drain

The loose drain came up as the Spaniard’s Ferrari crossed over, causing major damage to the underbody of the car. Alpine Racing also confirmed that Esteban Ocon’s car sustained track damage as well making it obvious the drain coming up is clearly a safety issue. So the track needed to make repairs, and for those of you like me who are not fully aware of the rules of F1, practice clocks do not stop due to a red flag. F1 seeing the time needed to fix the track canceled the remainder of first practice.

The Spiral

The red flag and the cancelation of practice caused another spiral for the inaugural Las Vegas GP. With delays, Security’s shift was ending and with that, fans needed to be removed from all fan areas including the grandstands at 1:30am Local time. Las Vegas Police escorted many spectators from the venue and many of those fans are not happy.

F1’s Social Media posted “Due to logistical considerations for our fans and our staff, we have made the determination that we will be closing all Las Vegas Grand Prix fan areas at 1.30am. We look forward to welcoming fans back later today for exciting FP3 and qualifying sessions”. Although F1 for some reason did delete the post.

Practice session 2 began a bit later which was extended from 60 to 90 minutes to make up for some lost time, but it occurred without fans in the stands.