Helmut Marko ‘surprised’ by what he saw Lando Norris do at the Las Vegas Grand Prix

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McLaren star Lando Norris may now have a chance to further stretch his lead atop the 2025 drivers’ championship in the Las Vegas Grand Prix after setting the pace in FP2.

The 26-year-old arrived in Sin City holding a 24-point lead over McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri at the top of the drivers’ standings. Norris boasting a 49-point lead over Red Bull rival Max Verstappen also gifts him a chance to eliminate the Dutchman from the race in Nevada.

Norris can eliminate Verstappen from the 2025 F1 title race in Las Vegas by finishing Sunday with a lead of at least 58 points. There will be 58 points on offer during the final two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, but Verstappen has to win the final three races for their tie-breaker.

Lando Norris setting the pace in FP2 at the Las Vegas Grand Prix ‘surprised’ Helmut Marko

Two red flags interrupting the second practice session on Friday meant it was hard to gauge a telling picture of the potential pecking order in Sin City. Many drivers were unable to try a flying lap on the soft Pirelli tyres, on which Norris set the pace in FP2 at the Las Vegas GP.

READ MORE: All to know about the 2025 F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, including the forecast

Norris set a 1:33.602 to ultimately top the session, having been able to get a flying lap in on the C5 soft tyres before the red flags. Verstappen finished FP2 in P9 with a deficit of 0.503s to Norris, who held a 0.891s margin over Piastri down in P14 having not set a soft tyre time.

While Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko acknowledges that the red flags in FP2 on Friday distorted the timesheet, he was “surprised” by the speed that Norris managed given McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was cautious about his crew’s hopes before the event.

“We first have to analyse who has already revved the engine more and how much fuel the others have been using, especially since Piastri was so much slower than Norris,” Marko told Motorsport.com. “We’ll only really see tomorrow.”

Given McLaren team principal Stella had played down his team’s hopes for the Las Vegas GP prior to the event, Marko added: “Exactly. I’m surprised by Norris’ time. We still have to wait and see what engine settings they ran, and exactly how many kilos he had in the tank.”

What did Andrea Stella say about McLaren’s historical problems at the Las Vegas GP?

Norris won the Mexico City GP by 30.324s to regain the lead of the F1 drivers’ championship from Piastri during round 20/24. Also, Norris won the Brazil F1 Sprint and Sao Paulo GP from pole position last time out in round 21, to move into a commanding lead atop the standings.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration

Yet Stella was hesitant to get his hopes up that McLaren may contend for a third successive victory at the Las Vegas GP this week. The Las Vegas Strip Circuit has historically been an unwelcome venue for the Woking outfit, who have struggled in the cool conditions at night.

Tyre graining was one of the main problems that thwarted Norris and Piastri in the 2024 Las Vegas GP, as they finished P6 and P7 with deficits of 43.385s and 51.365s as Mercedes star George Russell won. McLaren even faced problems with a low-downforce rear wing in 2024.

“Vegas last year was one of the most difficult races,” Stella said, via Autosport, ahead of the 2025 edition. “We had difficulties with the behaviour of the tyres in qualifying, because we were not fast, and [the] behaviour of the tyres in the race, because we had a lot of graining.

“We also had some aerodynamic issues when we tried to offload the rear wing. We saw that we were losing too much efficiency, and we also had a bit of issues with the set-up of the car in a way trying to compensate for this graining and some of the understeer.”