The grandstands at F1's first visit to Las Vegas since the 1980s were left close to empty as fans predicted the 'biggest embarrassment in F1 history'.
Ahead of the event, there were reports that thousands of tickets were yet to be sold for Grand Prix weekend. Images from Friday's practice have appeared to back up the reports – with some of the stands virtually empty.
Motorsports website Oversteer48.com discovered about 10,000 unsold grandstand seats near the recently constructed Sphere and the circuit's East Harmon Zone when examining Ticketmaster data. And they added, on Ticketmaster, the cheapest ticket for the grandstand was around £1,000.
READ MORE: Las Vegas CCTV footage shows the moment manhole mangled Carlos Sainz's Ferrari
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"This might go down as one of the biggest embarrassment of F1 history," one fan, after seeing the image of the grandstand, said. While a second replied: "Did we honestly think that the Vegas GP wasn’t going to be an embarrassment?"
"I can't with the second hand embarrassment anymore," a third said. And another added: "It's gonna be the most useless race and most overhyped race of the year and I’m all for it!"
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The action on track didn't get off to a great start either, with the first practice cancelled after just nine minutes when Carlos Sainz hit a loose drain cover and damaged his Ferrari – causing a red flag.
Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur fumed: "The show is mega and I am very happy with what (F1 owners) Liberty (Media) did around the race but we have to separate the show and the sporting side.
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"The show is mega. The opening ceremony was something mega in F1 but it is not because you are doing this that you don’t have to do the job on then sporting side. You can do the show and do a good job on the sporting side."
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