What happened in a strange final Las Vegas GP F1 practice

That meant many were yet to properly show their hand on their final runs when Albon brushed the wall and separated his left-rear tyre from his Williams with five minutes to go.

The stray tyre and parked Williams prompted a red flag that ended the session.

Russell – who also had a quick spin – had been a frontrunner as soon as Mercedes moved onto soft tyres so his first place was not completely representative.

But it’s unclear what Max Verstappen and the Thursday pacesetting Ferraris were going to be capable of.

Verstappen spent spells on top mid-session, by some commanding margins, but went down an escape road on the first flying lap of his last run and then lost the rest to the red flag. He was fourth on the timesheets ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez.

The Ferraris repeatedly swapped first place between them during early medium-tyre running but only just switched to softs for a final outing when the session was stopped, so ended up 16th and 17th.

Lewis Hamilton was 0.760s off Russell’s pace in eighth, behind Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin.

Williams showed its expected strong pace on the circuit’s long straights and was also in the lead mix throughout, meaning Sargeant’s third place hints at a realistic Q3 pace even given the late disruption. Albon had been faster than his team-mate for most of the hour up to his shunt and was still classified sixth.