207 laps deleted for track limits in Austin practice, Albon and Norris top the list
Stewards deleted 207 lap times for track-limit breaches across the two Friday practice sessions at the United States Grand Prix: 79 in FP1 and 128 in FP2. Alex Albon had the most with 20, ahead of Lando Norris with 18.
A busy Friday for the stewards
The Circuit of the Americas kept race control occupied on Friday. Across first and second practice, 207 lap times were deleted for track-limit violations, GPFans reports: 79 in FP1 and 128 in FP2. RacingNews365 counts the deleted laps across 23 drivers.
Who lost the most laps
According to RacingNews365's tally, Alex Albon lost 20 laps (nine in FP1, 11 in FP2), followed by Lando Norris with 18 (five and 13). Isack Hadjar and Charles Leclerc each had 15, Lewis Hamilton 14, and Gabriel Bortoleto and Kimi Antonelli 13 apiece. At the other end, Valtteri Bottas had one deleted lap, Sergio Perez two and Max Verstappen three.
Leclerc topped both sessions despite his 15, which shows that in practice a deleted lap costs little. Antonelli, who can clinch the title this weekend, said the violations mostly come from mistakes and are normal when a driver is discovering the limit. In Singapore he had four breaches in the race.
Why it matters on Saturday
In qualifying, a deleted lap can end a driver's run in a session. In the race, three infractions earn a black-and-white flag and a fourth leads to a five-second penalty, as RacingNews365 notes. The weekend is far from the worst on record: it points back to the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix, which produced more than 1,200 violations.
The totals also show how widely the problem was spread. Of the 23 drivers who ran on Friday, only Bottas, Ocon and Perez lost fewer than three laps, while 18 drivers lost five or more. Qualifying for the United States Grand Prix follows later on Saturday, when the stewards' log will show how many drivers have adapted.
