Yuki Tsunoda and VCARB hope to keep improving at the Las Vegas Grand Prix

After a tough FP1, both Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson made some gains in FP2 at the Las Vegas Grand Prix

The Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix got off to a slow, and dusty, start during the first practice session Thursday night. With the circuit set on the busy Las Vegas streets, dust that accumulated during the day on the surface led to drivers slowly winding their way around the track during FP1, struggling to find grip, and posting slower times.

Slowly the dust was blown off the course due to 20 F1 cars winding their way around the streets, and conditions improved. While some drivers still struggled to find better times and efficient braking points, others saw their lap times tumble throughout FP1 and into the later FP2 session.

Yuki Tsunoda was one of the drivers in the latter category.

After finishing FP1 in P19 Tsunoda shaved more than three seconds off his best lap time in FP2, placing tenth.

“Overall, it was a positive first day here in Las Vegas. We struggled a bit in FP1, but then we managed to turn it around later in FP2,” said Tsunoda in Visa Cash App RB F1 Team’s post-practice report. “It’s a positive sign, as usually it’s not an easy thing to do, and I think we’ve found the direction to follow for the rest of the weekend. We need some more finetuning for tomorrow to find a couple of tenths to try and get into Q3. The long runs also seemed positive, even if I think it depends a lot on how we’re able to manage the [tires], given the tricky and unusual conditions we have here, but will be important to find the right balance in terms of car setup between short and long runs.”

Liam Lawson also improved from FP1 to FP2, jumping from P20 in the first session to P15 in the second.

“A challenging day today, honestly. We started the day really slow and then we made a step up and learnt quite a lot. It’s obviously extremely cold and the track earlier was really slippery and dirty, so you’re just waiting for it to build up,” said Lawson. “In FP2 the track was colder but better, and we learnt things that will help us tomorrow. We have the knowledge from today to improve, so hopefully we can be punching on the back end of the top 10, but it depends on how everyone else steps up as well.”

VCARB Racing Director Alan Permane classified Thursday as a “tough” day for the team, despite the improvements made by both drivers from FP1 to FP2.

“Honestly, this was quite a tough day for us. We didn’t get the best out of the cars in FP1, but we learned a lot from it and made several changes between the sessions,” said Permane. “Both drivers were much happier in the second session, although not completely satisfied. This has given us a clear indication of the direction we have to go in overnight and I believe we can make a similar step from FP2 to FP3 as we did between today’s sessions. That should give us a much more competitive car.”