F1’s return to Las Vegas was thrown into chaos after first prac🀅tice was cancelled after just eight minutes of running when Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz hit a manhole cover that had come loose. Esteban Ocon also suffered damage to his 🗹Alpine car by running over the cover. 

FP2 has been delayed while ongoing repai💎rs are carried out, with F1 and the FIA planning to resume F🙈riday’s track action at 10am UK time. 

“Unfortunately they've had a bit of a slap in the face to say the lea𒁃st and the Ferrari had more than a slap on its bodywork,” Br🌺undle told Sky. 

“It’s very embarrassing,” he added. “It is a street circui⛦t, it is the second-longest circuit on the calendar, a big old track. 

“It’s a problem we’ve had over the decades with covers coming up on, mostly street circuits it must be said, but also on more traditional race tracks like Kuala Lumper and China for example. So it’s a well-knꦚown problem. 

“I’m surprised that this kind of thing wasn’t sorted out beforehand. Obviously The Strip of Las Vegas has been resurfaced on the race track side and it seems as though these have been covered over but the suctiꦗon underneath the cars, the downforce generating underfloors of these cars have drawn these pieces up and then other cars have come along.

“Fernando Alonso saw it and darted around it and then its literally ripped the bottom out of the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz parked be🍷hind all of those barriers there. 

“The 𓂃chassis, the engine, the battery pack - a huge amount of damage to their car, which, unlessღs they are given special dispensation, will mean he will also probably take grid penalties as well.”

Asked if there is a balance to be struck between commercial duties and ensuring safety, Brundle said: “I think there’s also entertaining th꧂e vaꦚst number of thousands of people who’ve turned up here today.

“They’ve got to establish how many of these need to be fixed, establish a fix, do it, let it dry and then somebody, especially in a country like America, is going to have to sign that off and say that’s acceptable, send the cars out thereꦬ at 220mph and 🦩we think that’ll do. 

“Technically, somebody has got to go ‘that is an enginee💞red solution we are prepared to put our names to and say that’s now safe to send th๊e cars around there in terms of the cars, the drivers, the marshals, the fans and everybody involved. That’s a very big call for somebody.”

Brundle continued: “I guess they want to try and find a fix tonight and prove it ready for tomorrow. As soon a🌜s I saw it I thought ‘that’s going to take an age to get to the bottom of’. 

“To put something in, ꦕsome kind of resin or concrete that’s fast-setting. I mean how fast is fast? It’s not exactly warm out here tonight. It felt to me like they should have gone ‘ok, we’ve got a fundamental problem here, let’s stop, fix it and we’ll run a lot more tomorrow’.”