Max Verstappen secured his fourth world championship at the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix with Geroge Russell taking a dominant race win. Mercedes said they weren’t sure why they were so fast but they were very fast and dominated from pole position. George took the win leading Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz on the podium.
Win
WinA huge win for Max Verstappen and Red Bull for taking their 4th driver’s championship in a row. Max held it all together in a dramatic season both on and off track and his ability to compartmentalize the issues and challenges has been incredible. A big hat tip to Red Bull for weathering the storm and delivering when the chips were down. As I said earlier this year when Red Bull started to falter, this could be a 2009 repeat and so it was but Max was able to pull off a win in Brazil which clinched the deal.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – NOVEMBER 23: 2024 F1 World Drivers Champion Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing celebrates with his team after the F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas at Las Vegas Strip Circuit on November 23, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202411240378 // Usage for editorial use only //A big win for Mercedes and George Russell for the dominant win in Las Vegas. George looked strong from FP1and took the win from pole never looking back. A terrific performance from George the entire weekend with no errors. Lewis’s recovery drive from P10 was a great effort to recovery from his Q3 error.
A win for Ferrari who captured P3 and P4 and finished ahead of McLaren closing the constructor’s championship race. Charles Leclerc was not a happy bunny during the race with the pass Carlos Sainz put on him. Charles was very upset on the radio to the team and given his overall pace this weekend, he probably had a good reason to be upset.
A win for Yuki Tsunoda who drove a great race to finished P9 and keeping the constructor’s battle alive for RB. Also a big win for Nico Hulkenberg for finishing P8 and leaping Haas ahead of Alpine and RB in the constructor’s championship.
Fail
FailA fail for McLaren who lost ground to Ferrari in the constructor’s championship and also lost the driver’s championship to Max Verstappen. Lando Norris took the loss in a very magnanimous way and the team admitted they just couldn’t get on top of the car’s pace this weekend.
A fail for Alpine and the DNF for Pierre Gasly who started P3 and also for Williams and the DNF for Alex Albon.
WTH
WTHI am not sure if there was a different TV production crew or not and I am sure that Las Vegas is one of the more difficult races to broadcast given the length of track and amount of passes but I am stunned that many of the key passes in the first 15 laps or so were completely missed. They showed George Russell three times during the entire race and focused on the wrong battles when more critical passes were being made elsewhere. It just seemed much more disjointed than previous races and I am not sure why.
No idea how the world votes Lewis Hamilton as driver of the race given his Q3 error when George dominated the entire weekend including pole and the win. How can George not be the obvious choice for driver of the day?
Pirelli Report:
Temperatures were slightly higher for the race, both ambient and track, compared to the previous days at 18/17 °C. On the grid, the vast majority of drivers opted to start on the Medium. There were four who chose otherwise: Alonso on Softs, Perez, Bottas and Colapinto, the latter starting from pit lane, on Hards. Almost all drivers made two stops, preferring to get the most out of the tyres, especially the two sets of Hards they had kept for the race, rather than trying to manage them, especially in the first stint.
As is so often the case, the laurels for the longest stints went to three specialists in this discipline, Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon both completing 33 laps on the Hard, while Valtteri Bottas did 18 with the Medium.
Las Vegas GP Results:
Pos | No | Driver | Car | Laps | Time/retired | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 50 | 1:22:05.969 | 25 |
2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 50 | +7.313s | 18 |
3 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 50 | +11.906s | 15 |
4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 50 | +14.283s | 12 |
5 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 50 | +16.582s | 10 |
6 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 50 | +43.385s | 9 |
7 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | 50 | +51.365s | 6 |
8 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas Ferrari | 50 | +59.808s | 4 |
9 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB Honda RBPT | 50 | +62.808s | 2 |
10 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 50 | +63.114s | 1 |
11 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 50 | +69.195s | 0 |
12 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 50 | +69.803s | 0 |
13 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 50 | +74.085s | 0 |
14 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | Williams Mercedes | 50 | +75.172s | 0 |
15 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 50 | +84.102s | 0 |
16 | 30 | Liam Lawson | RB Honda RBPT | 50 | +91.005s | 0 |
17 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | 49 | +1 lap | 0 |
18 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 49 | +1 lap | 0 |
NC | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | 25 | DNF | 0 |
NC | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | 15 | DNF | 0 |
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and we are still not liking Sergio’s pace.
Did anyone else think KMag really seemed like Steve McQueen in his post race interview? There’s something about every little thing he was doing.
We are getting to the point where more than half the ‘races’ are on something other than a race track. Every view from the car looked like an indoor kart track. DRS is allowing them to hold an ‘event’ anywhere there’s money because you just need one straight. I think people are missing the fact the actual sport is dying right in front of us – these are not F1 races they’re catering/merch/music events with a car parade!
Still the most awkward podium sequence in the industry.