Where Ferrari stand in four-way Las Vegas qualifying battle

Ferrari’s drivers are optimistic about their chances at the Las Vegas Grand Prix ahead of what appears to be a wide-open fight for pole position.

A delayed and disrupted Friday meant a true competitive picture could not be formed going into final practice and qualifying, with teams unable to conduct race simulations and several drivers missing the chance to complete representative soft tyre laps in FP2.

Championship leader Lando Norris topped a tightly-contested second practice by just 0.029s from Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc, who ended up 0.161s adrift after setting the pace in FP1.

McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull all showed signs of competitiveness, setting up the tantalising prospect of a potential four-way battle to secure pole in Sin City.

“Honestly we are not in a bad place,” Leclerc said at the end of the first day of action.

“But we need to wait and see. I think the Mercedes is very strong and obviously McLaren and Red Bull are also in the fight so I think it's going to be tight.

“I just hope we can build from now and be in the fight for pole tomorrow, but it's been positive. I think the pace was strong today.

“It's all about trying to anticipate what the conditions of tomorrow will be like and make sure that we start on the right foot tomorrow. But I have pretty clear ideas of what I want to do with the car to try and improve it and we'll see tomorrow if these were the right choices.”

Hamilton ‘excited’ for qualifying

Leclerc’s teammate Lewis Hamilton was equally optimistic despite failing to set a competitive lap on soft tyres and finishing 10th in the timesheets.

“I felt pretty decent,” the seven-time world champion said. “P1 generally felt good, I just didn't get a lap in and then same thing in P2.

“We improved the car in P2 and I was feeling strong in sector one, same as I was in P1, but yellow flags and the red flags just got in the way unfortunately.

“But everyone's in the same boat. I got some good learnings out there and I'm excited for tomorrow.”

Hamilton added that “we probably won’t make many changes to the car”, underlining his positive early feel from the SF-25.

Ferrari arrive in Las Vegas off the back of a nightmare double retirement in Brazil which saw F1’s most famous team slide down to fourth place in the constructors’ championship.

Since Brazil, Ferrari have been in the headlines for the wrong reasons, following chairman John Elkann’s public rebuke of his drivers which has raised eyebrows in the F1 paddock.