F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix LIVE: Practice updates and times in Sin City

Confirmation of Kieran’s earlier update – “ Practice 2 is expected to commence at 2am local time in Las Vegas. This is subject to local circuit engineering team completing the necessary works on the track.”

So for those of you watching on (or waiting on) in the UK, that will be 10am. Another hour and a half to wait!

Speaking on Sky Sports, former driver Martin Brundle revealed he doesn’t expect any further action after the on-track issue from FP1.

“That’s it for today from my experience,” he said. “Fixing that and checking everything else, letting it dry and making sure it won’t come out again is going to be a big job.

“Theoretically, they are going to re-open the Strip (for public use) after the F1 practice sessions. That is a very, very big issue if there are other areas like that around the track.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said on Sky: “It’s a shame that we are not allowed on track.

“They are going to have to check all the manhole covers and weld them or do something because you can see the damage that it has done.

“It’s a great shame for the fans but safety comes first. We have got to get this right and hopefully it won’t take too long.”

The Independent understands the plan is to have a 90-minute practice session starting at 2:30am local time (10:30am GMT).

There are between 15-20 drain covers which are being inspected on the strip section of the circuit.

No official confirmation from the FIA yet.

Ferrari weren’t happy but other team bosses have been defending F1 and the track.

“These cars are generating huge amounts of suction underneath now,” said Williams Racing team principal James Vowles.

“From the picture I saw it was not something where there was a lack of diligence to it, it was an amount of force they weren’t expecting.

“I’m confident we’ll get everything sorted but I don’t think it was at all a case of cutting corners.”

McLaren CEO Zak Brown agreed.

“First we have to fix it and look back and go how did that happen. It would be unfair to say corners were cut. It’s happened before in Baku and in Sportscar racing back in Montreal.”

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff lashed out at a reporter who asked how the cancelled practice was not a “black eye” for F1. “That’s completely ridiculous,” Wolff said.

“How can you even dare to talk bad about an event that sets the new standards for everything, and you’re speaking about a … drain cover that’s been undone. It’s happened before, it’s nothing.”

Just one American racing in America this weekend…Didn’t quite make it out onto the track!

It has been well over two hours now since Formula One made any kind of official announcement – not great communications for the fans on the ground, ahead of when they should be preparing for an important hour of exciting viewing.

There have already been plenty of complaints over ticket prices, over availability of hotels early on and more.

There has been an app-push go out for the Las Vegas event, provided by the Independent’s man on the ground Kieran Jackson:

“Maintenance crews are on the track working to repair the damaged water valve cover. We will provide an update as soon as possible.”

“The only problem last time was we couldn’t run on the Strip, which is what I wanted to do,” he said. “I wanted to make sure when somebody turned their television on they knew they were in Vegas, not in the desert. They promised me, ‘yes, we can do it’.”

There are reports of fans leaving “en masse” amid the cancellation of FP1 and an impending FP2 delay.

We were due to be starting that at around 15 minutes but doesn’t appear that will be the case.

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur was scathing of Formula 1 after Carlos Sainz’s car was substantially damaged mere minutes into practice at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

F1’s newest race started in farcical fashion on Thursday night after first practice was stopped following just eight minutes due to a loose drain cover on the Vegas strip section of the circuit.

Sainz’s Ferrari car drove over the manhole at more than 200mph, causing damage to the floor. The Spaniard stopped his car on the side of the track.

The session was red-flagged and Vasseur labelled the incident “unacceptable” in the team principals’ press conference afterwards.

For our Premium readers: Kieran Jackson’s pre-race headline looking back at the last attempt to race in Vegas feels oddly spot-on given the current halt to proceedings. With FP2 delayed it’s perhaps a chance to catch up:

Las Vegas has always been a playground for grown-ups.” John Watson recalls the stateside years like they were yesterday. A Formula One driver for 11 years in the 1970s and ‘80s, the Northern Irishman speaks with great fondness when it comes to racing in North America. Watkins Glen in upstate New York was the highlight – “there were people riding around on trail bikes, high as a f****** kite” – as well as a brief stint at Long Beach in California.

But the 1981 and 1982 season finales in the Caesars Palace hotel parking lot, under the glaring Nevada sun on a tight, twisty track? Not so much. Bernie Ecclestone’s grand plan to expand F1 in the United States, as well as Las Vegas’ eagerness to expand its entertainment portfolio beyond gambling and boxing, saw the infamous Caesars Palace Grand Prix concocted. It was, in Casino City parlance, a big gamble.

The expectation was that it would bring in the big-hitters; the “high-rollers”, keen to splash the cash amid the ever-growing glitz and glamour that Ecclestone and his savvy bunch of team owners had brought to the sport. Yet, the reality was something quite different: a damp squib.