by Linus O'Howell
Despite a couple of incidents, Max Verstappen was still able to take the chequered flag first in an enjoyable race under the lights in Las Vegas. Charles Leclerc finished second, snatching P2 off Sergio Perez on the final lap of the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The most notable moments
Chaos ensued at the opening corner at the start as Max Verstappen ran Charles Leclerc out of road to take the lead of the Grand Prix (whilst also running well off the track himself). Behind the leaders, Fernando Alonso got into a spin all on his own which caused damage to both Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez while Carlos Sainz tagged Lewis Hamilton. This brought out a Virtual Safety Car and by Lap 4, we had the full Safety Car as Lando Norris suffered a big shunt.
📸 Verstappen came together with Leclerc on the start but fought back for another win.
Thankfully, Lando was okay, but this incident was fully on him in my opinion.
📸 Norris was taken to Hospitals for checks but later cleared.
During the Safety Car, Stroll and Sainz came into the pits and they joined Perez and Alonso at the back of the cue after the latter two drivers had already made their pitstops in the Virtual Safety Car.
When the race got back underway, Verstappen received a 5-second time penalty for his opening corner incident with Leclerc and whilst this didn’t look to hurt Verstappen at first, it did become a problem for the triple World Champion after Leclerc re-took the lead before the first round of pit stops.
📸 Leclerc put in a stellar performance to finish P2.
Elsewhere, Hamilton and Oscar Piastri came together which caused both cars to pick up a puncture whilst after the first round of pit stops, Perez found himself in the lead of the Grand Prix after benefiting from the earlier stop.
More carnage then ensued as Verstappen and George Russell came together at Turn 12 which resulted in a penalty for Russell and another Safety Car. Personally, I think the penalty for Russell was quite harsh.
On the restart, Perez got at Leclerc after pitting for a brand-new set of Hard compound tyres whilst Verstappen was starting to make his way back to the front. Despite Checo retaking the lead from Leclerc, he was then back behind the Ferrari driver a few laps later before he saw his Red Bull teammate blast past him then following lap. Max was then able to overtake Leclerc the following lap before he was able to control from the front for the remaining 10-or-so laps.
📸 Perez on track.
Elsewhere, Pierre Gasly had an issue that saw him drop massively back through the field whilst Russell was able to get past both Stroll and Ocon in the closing phases (he did end up dropping behind them due to his penalty though). And then, on the final lap, Leclerc pulled off a great move to overtake Perez for P2 which definetly made up for an error Leclerc made around 5 laps before.
Drivers who impressed
There were two drivers that impressed more than anyone in today’s Las Vegas Grand Prix and the first one is Charles Leclerc. Leclerc drove a terrific race and with some luck on his side, he might just have won the whole thing!
The other driver that I was most impressed with was Esteban Ocon who had a super day to go from 16th to 4th in his Alpine.
📸 Ocon's 4th place finish was his highest since his third place in Monaco.
I was also impressed by both Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll who picked up great results respectively whilst Sergio Perez, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, and Pierre Gasly all had really good days (some of them were particually unlucky).
📸 Stroll has taken two fifth places in a row, and points in three of his last four races.
Drivers who struggled
The driver that I was least impressed with today was none other than Lando Norris. The reason for this is Lando lost his car at Turn 11 and that’s not really a mistake that someone of Norris’ ability and calibre should be making.
I also thought both Valtteri Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda weren’t particually quick whilst Logan Sargeant had a disappointing evening.
📸 Tsunoda retired late on.
Overall Race Results
1) Max Verstappen: Winner 2) Charles Leclerc: +2.070 3) Sergio Perez: +2.241 4) Esteban Ocon: +18.665 5) Lance Stroll: +20.067 6) Carlos Sainz: +20.834 7) Lewis Hamilton: +21.755 8) George Russell: +23.091 (5 second time penalty) 9) Fernando Alonso: +25.964 10) Oscar Piastri: +29.496 11) Pierre Gasly: +34.270 12) Alex Albon: +43.398 13) Kevin Magnussen: +44.825 14) Daniel Ricciardo: +48.525 15) Zhou Guanyu: +50.162 16) Logan Sargeant: +50.882 17) Valtteri Bottas: +85.350
DNF: Yuki Tsunoda (Gearbox), Nico Hulkenberg (Issue), Lando Norris (Crash).
📸 Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, Aston Martin F1 Team, Scuderia Alpha Tauri, Alpine F1 Team.
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