A Formula One car turned into a flamethrower during a practice run in Las Vegas Thursday night, spitting out a stream of fire that was caught on dramatic video ... forcing officials to cancel the rest of the session.
Check out the footage, obtained by TMZ Sports ... several F1 cars, including a Ferrari, are zooming around the track built along the Vegas Strip for Saturday's celebrity-studded Formula One Grand Prix. Journey, J Balvin, John Legend, Keith Urban and Steve Aoki are all set to perform at the three-day event.
In the 19-second clip ... Carlos Sainz's Ferrari roars down the track past The Cromwell Hotel and, suddenly a burst of flames shoots out from the back of the race car before it disappears from our view. One stunned onlooker reacts by yelling, "Wooooooo!"
It was later revealed the incident was caused when Sainz drove over a loose drain cover, causing serious damage to his car.
Ferrari was forced to replace Sainz's chassis, engine and battery ... which sparked a 10-place grid penalty for the race.
Thankfully, no one was injured ... and the police and fire departments did not have to respond to the scene.
Sainz sounded off on the track conditions in a social media post Friday morning ... saying, "Eventful and long day. We seem competitive and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
"However, the situation of the manhole damage and the 10-place penalty is not acceptable, but we’ll deal with it."
Road workers were brought in to repair a manhole cover on the track, causing the second practice run to be delayed.