Verstappen Wins in Exciting Inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix
Despite a couple of incidents, Max Verstappen was still able to take the chequered Flag first in an enjoyable Race. Charles Leclerc finished second, snatching P2 off Sergio Perez on the Final Lap of the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Biggest Talking Points
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 whilst 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. Thankfully, Lando was okay, but this incident was fully on him. During the Safety Car window, Lance and Carlos came into the Pits and they joined Checo and Fernando at the back of the cue after the latter two drivers had already made their pitstops in the VSC. When the race got back underway, Max 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 Charles re-overtook him before the first round of pitstops. Elsewhere, Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri came together which caused both cars to pick up a puncture whilst after the first round of Pitstops, Sergio Perez found himself in the lead of the Grand Prix after benefiting from the earlier stop. More carnage then ensued as Verstappen and Russell came together at Turn 12 which resulted in a penalty for Russell and another Safety Car. Personally, I think the penalty for George was quite harsh.
Anyway, on the restart, Sergio Perez got at Charles Leclerc after pitting for a brand-new set of Hard compound tyres whilst Max 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 the following lap. Max was then able to overtake Charles the following lap before he was able to control from the front for the remaining 10 or so laps. Elsewhere, Pierre Gasly had an issue that saw him drop massively back through the field whilst George Russell was able to get past both Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon in the closing phases. And then, on the final lap, Charles Leclerc pulled off a great move to overtake Sergio Perez for P2 which definitely made up for an error Leclerc made around 5 laps before.
The Standout Drives in the Race
I’ve given out two 10’s for today’s Las Vegas Grand Prix and the first one is actually for Charles Leclerc. Charles drove a terrific race today and with some luck on his side, he might just have won the whole thing! The other driver I’ve given a perfect 10 to is Esteban Ocon who had a super day to go from 16th to 4th in his Alpine. I also thought Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll had great races, but there were minor things that made me opt against giving those guys a 10 whilst Sergio Perez, George Russell, Oscar Piastri, and Pierre Gasly all had really good days (some of them were particularly unlucky).
Drivers who had a Shocker
I’ve only actually given out one 1 for today’s Race and that is for 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 particularly quick whilst Logan Sargeant had a disappointing evening.
Overall Race Results and My Ratings
Max Verstappen: 9
Charles Leclerc: 10
Sergio Perez: 8
Esteban Ocon: 10
Lance Stroll: 9
Carlos Sainz: 6
Lewis Hamilton: 6
George Russell: 8
Fernando Alonso: 5
Oscar Piastri: 8 (FL)
Pierre Gasly: 8
Alex Albon: 6
Kevin Magnussen: 5
Daniel Ricciardo: 4
Zhou Guanyu: 4
Logan Sargeant: 3
Valtteri Bottas: 2
Yuki Tsunoda: 2 (DNF)
Nico Hulkenberg: 4 (DNF)
Lando Norris: 1 (DNF)
Comments