Button: McLaren is under tremendous stress

      The third practice in Las Vegas went very badly for McLaren, and both of the team's drivers ended up at the bottom of the timesheets. This happened because toward the end of the session, when the track surface had improved significantly and speeds had increased, both of the team's cars developed problems, so Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were forced to stay in the pits.

      Something happened to the championship leader's MCL39 with the energy recovery system (ERS), and both cars also had faulty telemetry. Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion, who this weekend is commentating on the events in Las Vegas as part of Sky Sports' broadcast team, believes the problems will inevitably affect McLaren drivers' confidence, and the team faces a very tense qualifying session.

      "For both of them it's a really awful situation," Button said. "Whether you're the one chasing or the one being chased, you understand how important every point and every position in qualifying is right now. The team is under an incredibly intense amount of stress. Now it all depends on how you cope with that, how comfortable you'll be in the car on a track where it's impossible to properly warm up the tires. In short, McLaren are in a difficult position..."

      The weather in Las Vegas is unstable; it's starting to drizzle, and it's quite possible that at the start of qualifying drivers will have to use intermediate tires, and how events will develop from there is not yet clear.

      "It all depends on how much you're willing to risk," Jenson continued. "And everyone is prepared to take risks — except the McLaren drivers. It's unpleasant to find yourself in that position before qualifying, because they ended up 19th and 20th due to telemetry problems. Overall, the session promises to be very interesting. The rain is continuing, and it's really cold here. Putting on slicks is very risky — I think if we do see that in qualifying, it will more likely be in the second or third session."