Las Vegas neon sign reading 'drive carefully' in red capital letters and 'come back soon' in blue

Elma Taric

The Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix brings a Drivers Championship decider, a Mercedes one-two and a slew of problems for several teams. Under the Sphere and lights, Las Vegas provides an exciting race to unpack.

Max Verstappen becomes a four time Formula 1 world champion in the Las Vegas Grand Prix, claiming the title from fifth place. The Red Bull driver was able to extend his lead by 63 points. The standing means title competitor Lando Norris can no longer possibly contend.

The feat means Verstappen becomes the fifth driver in Formula 1 history to win a fourth consecutive title. He joins the likes of Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Juan Manuel Fangio. Speaking on his performance in Las Vegas, Verstappen said: “I’m incredibly proud of everyone of what they’ve done for me and to stand here as a four-time world champion is something I never thought was possible, so at the moment I’m feeling relieved in a way, but also very proud.“

However, Verstappen’s season was not without challenges. After dominating the start of the year, Red Bull was hit with various issues. With an unbalanced car, the pace and tyre wear impacted the performance of the RB20 significantly.

In spite of it, the world champion was able to make a comeback. During last week’s Grand Prix in Brazil, Verstappen was able to win the race from seventeenth place—a crucial result that ultimately solidified the championship in his favour.

Mercedes’ One-Two Finish

Pole sitter George Russell won the Las Vegas Grand Prix, earning his third win in his Formula 1 career. The Mercedes driver maintained a solid lead throughout the race, evading Charles Leclerc’s multiple attempts to overtake.

Meanwhile Hamilton, who qualified tenth, was able to make his way up to second in an incredible statement drive. The seven-time world champion was the fastest driver in the first two practice sessions. However, a lock up mistake in the third round of qualifying caused his lap to be deleted.

The team successfully finished the race in a one-two slot, earning significant points. As this results, Mercedes has now achieved 60 one-two finishes since its inception, and were the fastest in every session all weekend.

“It’s been a dream of a weekend,” Russell stated. “To get the victory here, pole position, a dominant weekend, one-two with Lewis as well… We couldn’t have chosen a better place to make this happen.”

Hamilton also reaffirmed: “I’m really happy for the team. It was an exceptional performance by everyone this weekend to claim the 1-2 […] It felt great to be moving forward throughout as I had a long way to come back from!”

Ferrari Drama

Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz butted heads over team orders, causing tension between the two. Sainz overtook Leclerc for third place after his pitstop. However, Leclerc was informed by the team that Sainz would not do so previously.

Post race, the Monegasque driver shouted expletives on the radio. “It’s not even [about Sainz] being nice, it’s just being respectful,” Leclerc said to his race engineer. “At one point, it’s always the same.”

Despite the disagreement, both drivers are adamant that they have cleared the air, stating they have moved on from the situation.

Leclerc brushed off his post-race anger. In a later interview, he declared: “whatever happened in Vegas we discussed about it and we are all good, which is the most important thing.”

“We’ve gone through this so often that we know how to talk and then move on from it,” Sainz also asserted.

Both drivers in the past few weeks have also commented on the social media discourse regarding their friendship. Leclerc stated he was “sick” of it, and that “people judge on two seconds of coverage.” Similarly, Sainz expressed his disappointment in seeing people claiming their relationship is PR.

McLaren Struggles

As a whole, the McLaren drivers have struggled all weekend. Both drivers qualified outside of the top five. The only other time that has happened this season was in Bahrain at the beginning of the year. The cold weather affected the surface of the track, causing grip issues. Consequently, neither could find consistent pace.

“It’s just very difficult, super low grip. I feel like I could drive a road car quicker than we drive at the minute.” Norris said.

Piastri also mentioned tyre wear as a key issue: “Especially on my side [of the McLaren garage], it was a much, much more difficult race with the tyres than I expected going in.”

In addition, Norris is officially out of contention for the championship after finishing sixth place, right behind Verstappen. The once title contender now fights to retain second place, with Leclerc on his heels.

Moreover, Norris and Piastri continue the battle to keep the lead over Ferrari for the World Constructor’s Championship. If McLaren wins the Constructor’s this year, it will be their first in the 21st century. The last time McLaren achieved the title was in 1998.

The Good And The Bad

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was forced to retire during the race after a spectacular qualifying which landed him third on the starting grid. The upsetting result came after an excellent performance in Brazil, where Gasly and teammate Esteban Ocon both made it to the podium.

Similarly, Williams’ Alex Albon also retired. Both suffered power unit issues.

Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg had a stellar race however. His eight place finish means his team takes back P6 in the Constructor’s standings.

Both the Williams team and Franco Colapinto have made an amazing comeback after the Argentine driver’s qualifying crash. The engineers managed to rebuild the car in time, and Colapinto faced an impact of over 50g.

With two more races left, many points can be obtained or lost. Whatever happens will decide a team championship and several midfield standings.

READ NEXT:

Featured image courtesy of Michael Koukoullis on Flickr. No changes were made to this image. Image licence found here.

Elma Taric is a Psychology and Criminology student based in Australia. She has aspirations of working in the Criminal Justice and Journalism industries. Elma currently writes pieces on news, entertainment and sports.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *