Las Vegas Race Reaction
Image: Red Bull Content Pool
Max Verstappen once again won the jackpot this weekend at the long-awaited Las Vegas Grand Prix, a long 38 years and 10 months after the Caesars Palace Grand Prix in 1984, levelling himself on wins with the great Sebastian Vettel at 53. The stage was set for Formula One to go racing in the heart of the glitz and glamour of the entertainment capital of the world. This all sounds well and good, however you can’t ignore the fact that attendee fans to the street circuit were left with a very sour taste in their mouths at an early stage of the weekend.
To summarise the issues, it began with F1 Management blocking the view via the use of scaffolding, window wrap and metal gates on the bridge connecting two hotels that runs over the track at Turn 12. F1’s reasoning for this is that it was done in the name of safety. Secondly, fans were ushered out of the grandstands before the start of FP2 (which took place at 2:30am local time) due to concern over “our public safety and security officials”. A class action lawsuit was the result of this spectator sham.
With legalities and fan unrest out of the way - there was more than enough chaos on race day to go around, so let’s get right into it!
Qualifying
Well, before we even talk about qualifying, we first have to cover the first bit of on-track drama of the weekend. In Friday’s FP1, Carlos Sainz was barreling down the back straight when he ran over a drain cover, thereby loosening it and causing almost irreparable damage to the floor, engine, energy store and Control Electronics unit of his SF-23 and sending sparks flying.
Image: Motor Sport Magazine
Ferrari appealed to the FIA to be able to replace the damaged components without an incurred penalty, however this request was turned down and Sainz was given a 10-place grid penalty for the race on Sunday, meaning he started in P12.
The Spaniard, with the support of team principal Frederic Vasseur, has branded this decision as unfair and is in ‘disbelief’ following the verdict.
“The show is the show and everything is going well but I think it is just unacceptable for F1 today.”
Moving onto Q1 then, it was a surprise to see both McLaren cars not make it to Q2 as Norris missed out by 20ms, with Piastri behind in P19. Ocon and Verstappen had a bit of a run-in at Turn 1, saying not the nicest of things about each other over the radio. Tsunoda, clearly not happy with his P20 performance, was seen chucking the HANS device out of the cockpit after being wheeled into the Alpha Tauri garage.
The drivers out in Q1 were: Norris, Ocon, Zhou, Piastri and Tsunoda.
Yuki Tsunoda on his Q1 exit
“The car was just hopping in the last sector … the tyre was super cold and I didn’t get any grip”
Q2 rolled around and Ferrari’s strong pace set them up for a front-row lockout, with Leclerc setting the faster lap. Williams had a fantastic session as home hero Sargeant sat P9, behind teammate Albon in an impressive 6th. Gasly, Magnussen and Bottas also made it through, adding some flavour to the leaderboard for good measure. Hamilton and Perez, contenders for P2 in the championship, both fell short of the mark and lost their spots in Q3 by under half a tenth.
The drivers out in Q2 were: Hamilton, Perez, Hulkenberg, Stroll and Ricciardo.
The final qualifying session of the day got off to a relatively quiet start, with Fernando Alonso having a small lockup at Turn 14. As the session came to a close, both Ferraris and Verstappen were battling it out for pole position and when the flag fell it was Charles Leclerc that went the quickest. Elsewhere, Alexander Albon managed a P6 lap, with teammate Sargeant just behind in P7 - a brilliant result for the team. Russell, Gasly, Bottas, Magnussen and Alonso were the only members of their respective teams to make the top ten by the end of qualifying.
The top ten for Sunday ran as follows: Leclerc, Sainz (+10), Verstappen, Russell, Gasly, Albon, Sargeant, Bottas, Magnussen and Alonso.
First-lap carnage on the strip
Image: XPBimages
A completely green track surface and some dust and dirt provided a wobbly run to Turn 1 on the opening lap, seeing Verstappen run Leclerc wide and fully off the tarmac whilst Alonso behind went for a spin after dropping it himself in an attempt to overtake Sargeant. The Monegasque was immediately on the radio to his engineer:
“This needs to be addressed now … he needs to give that position back.”
All the while, a stationary Alonso (now facing back towards the entry of T1) is met head-on by Bottas, the two cars trading paint on their front wings. Sergio Perez had actually slightly outbraked himself, which is what sent the Finn into Alonso.
Further back on the grid, the penalty-stricken Carlos Sainz down in P12 had a rough start as he got on the anchors a bit too late and whacked the rear left quarter of Lewis Hamilton, sending the Ferrari into a spin alongside compatriot Fernando Alonso.
Viva Las Verstappen
Image: Red Bull Content Pool
After his succession of verbal blows to the event organisers with regards to the motivation behind holding a Grand Prix in Las Vegas, Max Verstappen seemed to have changed his tune upon claiming his 18th race victory this year. The reigning world champion saw more action than usual this time round, being passed by Leclerc on lap 16 to regain the lead, coming to blows with George Russell and damaging part of his front wing on lap 25 and flying by his teammate to chase after the leading Leclerc on lap 36.
Max found his way past his childhood friend Leclerc on lap 37, leaving him to battle it out with Perez just behind.
Love him or hate him, we have to recognise that we’re witnessing history being made by Verstappen. It’s not preposterous to say that in the years following his eventual retirement, we’ll look back fondly at these times much like we do now for Vettel.
Ferrari find form
Following the drain cover debacle, Ferrari managed to claw back a strong performance in the form of Leclerc, who snatched the second podium spot from the clutches of Sergio Perez on the final lap, making it the second weekend in a row where Perez has lost a last-lap run to the line.
Image: Motorsport Week
Meanwhile, Sainz closed out Sunday in P7 - not quite the result he would’ve wanted, but still a decent points haul for the Maranello team.
Charles gave his thoughts post-race:
Charles Leclerc on his close-fought P2 finish
“As much as I’m very tough with myself whenever I [make] a mistake, I recognise when I do a good job … today was honestly a really really good race and I’m really happy.”
Lots of ‘really’s there, but you can see the sentiment!
Green versus orange for fourth
Image: @AstonMartinF1 on Twitter/X
