Isack Hadjar finishes FP2 in 5th: “A strong start to the weekend in Las Vegas”. Isack Hadjar secures 5th place in FP2 at the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

It was a relatively positive opening day of practice for Racing Bulls at the Las Vegas circuit, host of the third-to-last round of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship. With the exception of FP1 — where Liam Lawson finished in 13th place — both drivers managed to place inside the top ten. While the New Zealander bounced back in a controversial FP2 session, interrupted twice due to yet another issue with a loose drain cover, Isack Hadjar set his best personal lap time of the day during the second session.

First impressions

After securing seventh place in FP1, the French-Algerian driver ended FP2 in fifth position with a time of 1:33.893. He commented: “We’ve started the weekend quite well here in Las Vegas. It was less tricky than expected; I think the track is probably in better condition compared to last year. Overall grip is also better than I thought, and I found the right rhythm straight away from FP1 onwards. Even though we don’t have many kilometres on the long runs, today we completed some pretty good short runs, which is great ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying. We know it will be tough, but it’s the same story as the other weekends: our goal for tomorrow is to reach Q3.”

More difficulties

Isack Hadjar’s remarks were generally positive, although they did not fully align with the impressions shared by his teammate. Liam Lawson explained: “I’m optimistic after today’s sessions. We struggled a bit in FP1 and not everyone managed to complete their laps during FP2, so we need to be aware that maybe we’re not exactly where we think we are. The main thing is that we’re in a much better position than where we started today. Tomorrow we’ll have another opportunity to continue improving the car, so we’ll see where we end up, because the field is very tight as usual. Track grip is really low and we had a light drizzle that we couldn’t see but could feel, which made driving quite confusing. Tomorrow it shouldn’t rain, but if it does, it’s going to be very difficult. As always, we’ll work hard to make sure everything goes smoothly for qualifying.”