There have been plenty of concerns about the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix heading into the first race there since 1982.
And in the first practice session, disaster struck early on Friday.
As the drivers were going around the track, Carlos Sainz of Ferrari hit a loose drain cover, sending sparks everywhere and damaging the heck out of the bottom of his car. The practice session was stopped, the drain cover was fixed, and eventually the cars got back out. But Sainz will get a penalty on race day — which feels really unfair — and his car got back out, performing very well once everything got fixed.
Here are videos of the incident, plus photos of the damage:
The moment Carlos Sainz hit the manhole cover😱😱#LasVegasGP #f1lasvegas #CarlosSainz #LasVegasGrandPrix pic.twitter.com/InRv6dUPP3
— Yusuf Tanşu (@YusufTanu2) November 17, 2023
The session has been canceled, here's a slow motion look at what happened with Carlos Sainz pic.twitter.com/ktE2SMAsEZ
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) November 17, 2023
CCTV footage of Sainz hitting the drain cover in FP1 #F1 #LasVegasGrandPrix pic.twitter.com/VV5O3fmqBT
— Jean. (@Johnners96) November 17, 2023
Carlos Sainz driving over the drain cover #VegasGP https://t.co/XARzXklUxf pic.twitter.com/myx4uV1VEE
— Evan Abrams (@EvanHAbrams) November 17, 2023
disastrous start to the Las Vegas F1, with a drain cover working loose in practice and causing damage to Sainz’s car. The same thing happened during practice sessions in Azerbaijan in 2019 and Malaysia in 2017. I’m just glad that nobody was hurt
pic.twitter.com/sD3pcwmP5R— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) November 17, 2023
The damage caused to Carlos Sainz's Ferrari was so severe it was possible to see the road through the cockpit 😲
(h/t @tgruener) pic.twitter.com/kfJkeO1c3A
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) November 17, 2023
The damage sustained to Carlos Sainz's floor looks extensive 😳 pic.twitter.com/IrQ2rwJNho
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) November 17, 2023
What a disaster all around.
