Round 22 of the 2025 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with Thursday practice at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit as teams prepared for Saturday night's 50-lap Las Vegas Grand Prix.

FP1, held as dusk fell, saw the 20-strong field searching for grip under the lights on a very green and dusty track - Formula 1 the first series to hit the street circuit this weekend with F1 Academy following. MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon finished the session P16 and P17 respectively. Fastest laps were captured running the Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires, Bearman posting a 1:35.990, Ocon directly behind on a 1:36.123. Both drivers started and finished the 60-minute session sampling the Yellow medium rubber.

Conditions remained cool as FP2 commenced at 20:00 local time - air temperature sitting at 13 degrees Celsius (55.4 degrees Fahrenheit) with track temperature just 16 degrees Celsius (60.8 degrees Fahrenheit). While rain had threatened, in the end some momentary light drizzle was all that materialized. Two red flag stops - for a loose manhole cover, ultimately blighted the night session. The disruption came as Bearman and Ocon were set for Quali sim laps. Denied the opportunity for flying runs on the soft compound, FP2 concluded with Bearman in P17 (1:34.986) and Ocon in P19 (1:35.228) - their fastest laps set on their opening stint on the medium tires.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team ran a total of 93 laps on Thursday across FP1 and FP2 - 48 by Ocon with 45 from Bearman.

Ollie Bearman: "We know there's big track evolution on a track like this, but honestly, those first few laps I did in FP1 - on a new track - I was shocked by how low the grip was. It's hard to describe the low level of grip that's out there, but in turn, it means track evolution is incredibly high. In FP2, we were quite early to get onto the soft tire, I didn't manage to do a lap on it sadly, but it meant when I pitted, I was in a good position, and when I went out again, I was suddenly five or six tenths further from the front. It was a tricky session with the rain, traffic, and other interruptions, but I think we learned a lot. It's a new track for me, so I'm also finding my rhythm around here, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

Esteban Ocon: "It was difficult out there, like it always is in Vegas. It's difficult to get the tires up to temperature, and with the little bit of rain out there in FP2, it was even harder. We have the main things to try and improve tomorrow, we couldn't complete our run on the soft compound, we didn't do any laps on it in FP2, so it was a bit of a disrupted session, but we got enough information to learn from. We're going to work on getting more temperature into the tires and gaining more confidence in braking."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It was a tricky day today with all the interruptions. FP1 started okay, we knew which area of the car to work on. In FP2, we were going to build on it, but the track at the start of the session was a bit wet. The run on mediums was okay and we were looking forward to a run on softs but with the red flags, we couldn't get a lap in. I think we got enough data to improve the car, but in FP3 tomorrow we need to focus on understanding the best way to prepare soft tires for qualifying."