The grandstands emptied out, save a few optimistic fans who awaited further news after a couple hours watching asphalt, however, they too were sent home, $500 tickets burning through their pockets. Stewards declared the session would not be resumed, as every single manhole on the track would need to be filled with concrete. Fans arrived at the grandstands on Thursday night to witness only 8 minutes of track action before a manhole cover sprung loose under Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, slicing through his car floor.
This deliriously late start followed an already infamous free practice session that saw perhaps the most disastrous kick-off to an F1 race in living memory. I don’t know what time it is,” Mercedes driver George Russell says to reporters, after the second of three free practice sessions commences at 2 in the morning. Especially for the jet lagged out-of-towner, every day feels like three days in one. To broadcast the week’s events on a European time zone, free practice, qualifying, and the race itself were all slated to kick off late at night. Vegas during race week seems to possess an even stranger, stretchier relationship to the concept of time: and not just because you see people in full Lando Norris gear glued to the slot machines at 7 in the morning.
