Jolyon Palmer questions Ferrari after what he saw Charles Leclerc do at the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix

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Charles Leclerc of Ferrari set the third-fastest lap in FP2 at the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix, but Jolyon Palmer was left with one question before he suffered a gearbox issue.

The 28-year-old enjoyed a largely positive first day in Sin City on Friday, after Leclerc topped FP1 at the Las Vegas GP before falling to third in FP2. McLaren’s Lando Norris and Mercedes gem Andrea Kimi Antonelli beat Leclerc atop the timesheet with 0.161s between them in FP2.

Norris set the pace in FP2 at the Las Vegas GP with a 1:33.602 to deny Antonelli the top spot by only 0.029s. Leclerc set his fastest lap time of a 1:33.763 shortly before the midway point of the session, with the Monegasque going 1.039s faster than his FP1 pace-setting 1:34.802.

The end of FP2 at the Las Vegas GP featured two red flags, between which Leclerc suffered a gearbox issue in his Ferrari SF-25 with just over four minutes left on the clock. The eight-time career Grand Prix winner was told “do not shift” after reporting that “something broke”.

Jolyon Palmer saw Charles Leclerc had ‘absolutely’ no front grip in FP2 at the Las Vegas GP

Race control initially red-flagged FP2 at the Las Vegas GP with around 16 minutes remaining after trackside marshals noticed a loose manhole cover at Turn 17. While the session briefly resumed with just six minutes left, Leclerc’s day was over before FP2 was red-flagged again.

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

Despite the promising headline pace that Leclerc set during FP1 and FP2, Palmer questioned Ferrari’s plans in the second practice session at the Las Vegas GP after seeing the 27-time polesitter struggle with “absolutely” no front grip once he moved to the soft C5 Pirelli tyres.

Palmer queried on F1 TV: “I wonder if Ferrari told Leclerc, ‘Just go and attack the out lap and then just send it straight into a flying lap, see if you can just roar the tyres up to temperature and then go for it’. But he just had absolutely no front grip at all.”

Two red flags in FP2 at the Las Vegas GP denied many drivers their fastest lap times

Leclerc set his fastest time during FP2 at the Las Vegas GP while still running on the medium C4 compound tyres that Pirelli has provided this week, along with the C3 hards and C5 softs. Norris set the pace in FP2 once running the C5s, with which Antonelli also set his best effort.

READ MORE: Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

George Russell of Mercedes was the second-fastest driver among those to set their fastest efforts on the medium C4 tyres in FP2, as the Briton ended the day in P7 with 1:34.037. The 27-year-old was 0.435s off Norris’ chart-topping lap and 0.274s slower than Leclerc in FP2.

But Russell had just set a purple session-best first sector split time and set a personal-best in sector two before the first of the two red flags meant the Mercedes ace had to abort his soft tyre run in FP2. The red flags denied a raft of drivers their chance to set quicker efforts.

Leclerc’s teammate, Lewis Hamilton, also set his fastest effort in FP2 running the medium C4 tyres with a 1:34.127 for P10. The Scuderia drivers will now hope the pride of Italy figure out how they can extract more performance from the C5 softs in time for qualifying on Saturday.