Practice-
Doriane Pin made her title intentions clear, topping the timesheets in practice ahead of rival Maya Weug on the series’ first appearance around the Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
The Standings leader posted a 2:07.967 to go two tenths clear of the Ferrari driver after a late running red flag denied them a chance to improve in the last 10 minutes of running.
Lia Block was the first to post a time around the 6.2km circuit, steadily lowering the initial benchmark from a 2:19.431 to a 2:15.321. Track temperatures continued to fall below 17.6˚C as the action heated up, with Pin breaking into the 2:12s, followed by Tommy Hilfiger’s Alba Larsen.
The Mercedes driver pushed on, remaining quickest on a 2:10.117. Meanwhile, Weug began to slowly bring her tyres up to temperature, moving into second, seven tenths off Pin’s effort.
As the rest of the field picked up the pace, Alisha Palmowski rocketed to the top with the first 2:09s time of the day, only to be quickly beaten by Pin. Weug briefly moved to the top of the order on a 2:09.045, while both Rafaela Ferreira and Lia Block took separate tips to the run-off.
Personal bests for Palmowski and Chloe Chambers elevated the Campos Racing pair to the top two, but it wouldn’t be long before Pin moved back out front on a 2:08.606, with Weug closing to within 0.050s.
Pin managed to put over two tenths between herself and her title rival with a 2:07.967. Chambers moved back inside the top three, but the Red Bull Ford driver’s session would be brought to a premature end.
With less than 10 minutes remaining, the American found the barriers after her front right suspension broke on the approach to Turn 1, necessitating a red flag. The clock continued to tick down and with only a minute remaining once the session resumed, no further improvements were possible.
Qualifying-
Red Bull Ford driver, Chloe Chambers sailed above the rest to secure pole position on home soil, beating rookies Alisha Palmowski and Alba Larsen around the spectacular Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
In a shock to the remarkably close title battle, Chambers took the top spot in dominant fashion, leaving contenders Doriane Pin and Maya Weug down in P4 and P5 respectively after the American set a time of 2:06.538.
Following a small delay to the start of the session, it came down to McLaren driver Ella Lloyd to set the first flying lap on a busy track, with everyone working to warm their tyres up in the chilly conditions.
Her initial effort of 2:10.951 was quickly knocked off the top by title challenger Weug, who put in a purple sector 1 before getting caught behind Larsen.
There was a possibility that the Tommy Hilfiger driver was attempting to give her MP Motorsport teammate a tow to propel Weug to provisional pole, but Pin managed to go 0.420s clear with 18 minutes of the session remaining.
Larsen and Weug momentarily returned to the pits with plenty of improvements still to come – Chambers demoted Mercedes frontrunner Pin to P2, beating the fastest time set in practice in the process.
Lap times tumbled as Pin and Chambers continued to exchange P1 on the timesheets, leaving the battle for pole position wide open as the drivers headed into the tense final third of qualifying.
Meanwhile, Weug lingered down in sixth position before team tactics came into play and a successful tow from Larsen pushed her up to P2, just 0.044s behind Chambers.
With a lap around the dazzling Las Vegas track taking over two minutes to complete, everyone had to time their final attempts to perfection in order to maximise the tyre temperature.
Pin had previously been informed by her engineer that she needed a tow for Sector 3, but her PREMA Racing team mate Tina Hausmann did not make it easy to pass at the critical moment, leaving the Mercedes driver down in P4.
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