George Russell ensured Mercedes achieved the fastest time in the Las Vegas Grand Prix Formula 1 practice, while a late red flag shortened the hours-long endurance run.

The Briton posted a time of 1m33.570s in the final 10 minutes of the session, which remained unbeaten when Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin stalled exiting Turn 12, causing a pause in the session.

A red light remained on through Stroll’s T-cam as his car appeared to lock up, requiring time to clear to allow marshals to move the car to safety. This left only a minute left in the session’s running time when it finally resumed, so there were no further improvements.

In an uneventful first 15 minutes, Sergio Perez was the only driver with a time on the board; the Mexican noted that the track was “nowhere” in terms of grip compared to the end of Thursday’s FP2 session.

His lap on the medium tires was easily beaten by Yuki Tsunoda’s efforts on soft tyres, marking the start of a long period of continued evolution at the circuit as the circuit had to come back to the drivers.

Oscar Piastri then moved the times to the 1m35s, leading to an ensuing battle for first place between Charles Leclerc and Kevin Magnussen.

On Thursday, practice leader Mercedes resumed their grip on the top as Lewis Hamilton posted a 1m34.565s, beating Russell by 0.09s on his follow-up effort. Hamilton returned the favor, but Russell returned to the top.

Max Verstappen briefly held onto top spot after struggling for most of the session on the medium tire with minimal grip – a scenario he made ‘uncontrollable’ – and the Dutchman set a lap of 1.34.137, making the improvement noted.

But this was quickly defeated as the rest of the field began to open their performance runs; Carlos Sainz set a time of 1.33.918 minutes, but Russell ultimately beat Hamilton’s FP2 benchmark with a time of 1.33.570 minutes.

Piastri stayed ahead of Sainz and set the second fastest time, while Lando Norris set the fourth fastest time behind the Ferrari driver. Verstappen’s effort was good enough for fifth place, because Hamilton did not get a late time on the board before the red flag.

Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto put their Williams cars in seventh and eighth place, while Magnussen and Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.

Photos from the GP practice in Las Vegas

F1 Las Vegas GP – FP3 Results: