F1 Recap: Las Vegas GP

F1 Recap: Las Vegas GP

Ahead of the Las Vegas GP, two names headlined the event. Lando Norris had the potential to fight another day in the battle for the world title, and Max could take home the crown if he finished ahead of Lando. As far as F1 races go, this was a big one, and there is no better location to host the championship-deciding race than the home of over-the-top performances, Las Vegas.

Las Vegas has been a source of contention in recent years, with the track that is reportedly inconvenient for locals and wildly expensive for fans. However, as qualifying rolled in on Saturday, these minor details were squashed by the battle set to ensue.

Q1 proved disappointing for Sergio Perez, as he failed to set a lap time fast enough to progress into the top 15. His teammate, on the other hand, proved to have the pace and threatened the surprisingly quick Mercedes early on. Q2 proved to be disastrous for the young Williams driver, Franko Colapinto, as a brush with the wall on the apex forced him into the barriers on exit, ruining his chances at a good grid position.

Meanwhile, Lando Norris was under immense pressure as the Las Vegas GP was arguably his most important race to date, and his qualifying times seemed to give Verstappen the edge ahead of the race. Meanwhile, Q2 again showed that Mercedes had upped the game, and Ferrari responded with equally rapid times.

As Q3 began, the McLarens were the first to set lap times, with Oscar Piastri falling 0.3 seconds behind his teammate, who set a 1.33.237. Verstappen responded with a slightly slower 1.33.215 than Carlos Sainz, who did so with a 1.33.022. The Mercs were late to the first timed lap, but their performance nevertheless rocked the standings. George Russell was the first to cross the line with a 1.32.811, and although Lewis Hamilton looked like he might just take the provisional pole, he backed out of his first lap due to a mistimed braking manoeuvre.

As the timer ticked down, Norris had one last chance to make the front row, and it was critical that he outperform Verstappen. He set the first of the final lap times with a 1.33.008, provisionally placing him in second behind Russell. Leclerc had a blistering lap at 1.32.783, placing him on provisional pole and knocking Norris off the front row.

Sainz, meanwhile, had an even more impressive lap, taking pole away from his partner with a time of 1.32.410 while Pierre Gasly set the second fastest time yet with a 1.32.664, knocking Norris further down the order. Verstappen was next and was under the watchful eye of the world. He set the fourth fastest time at 1.32.797 and was now sitting two spots ahead of his rival. Russell, however, stunned the audience with the night's fastest lap, which was 1.32.312, and in the process, he took pole in Las Vegas.

As impressive as Russell’s time was, he wasn’t the centre of attention as race day rolled in. All eyes were on Verstappen and Norris, sitting in fifth and sixth behind Russell on pole, Sainz in second, Gasly in third, and Leclerc in fourth. We were all expecting an early move from Norris on Verstappen to try and create a gap early on, and as the lights came out, he did just that, well, nearly. Norris had the inside line through the first corner and kept Verstappen wheel-to-wheel, but the Red Bull had the better exit and clawed ahead of Norris into the second turn, retaining the position.

Russell got off to a perfect start up front, but Leclerc took advantage of the inside line that Gasly offered and passed both the Alpine and his teammate in second place. As lap four came around, Verstappen finally managed to pass Gasly and place a car between him and his rival. Meanwhile, Leclerc and Russell were displaying an edge-of-your-seat battle up in the front. Fortunately for Russell, he managed to fend off the attack.

Piastri had a forgettable start as Yuki Tsunoda made quick work of the McLaren driver, shortly after Hamilton tried his luck, but Piastri stuck his elbows out and remained ahead of the Mercedes in eighth place. Only eight laps in, Gasly was proving to be a trickier obstacle for Norris, allowing Verstappen to build up a nine-second gap when lap eight rolled around.

With two cars between him and his chance of staying in the driver championship battle, Norris had quite the drive ahead of him if he was to catch up to Verstappen. Finally, on lap nine, Norris found his way past Gasly and began his hunt for Leclerc in fourth.

Although Hamilton's performance in qualifying wasn’t exactly confidence-inspiring, he continued to climb his way up the leaderboard, first overtaking Piastri and then Tsunoda, and quickly had his sights set on Gasly. Meanwhile, Norris came in for an early pit on lap 10 to hopefully undercut his way closer to Verstappen. But Verstappen has a win-at-any-cost attitude, and with that, he caught up to Sainz and swiftly overtook him again under DRS.

Lewis applied serious pressure to Gasly in the battle for fourth, and shortly after getting past the Alpine, not used to front-of-the-field racing, he packed up with an engine malfunction on lap 16. By lap 17, all cars had pitted for hard tyres, and Russell retained his lead, followed by Verstappen and Sainz. The undercut attempt by Norris did little to improve his performance, and he remained in sixth.

As the laps ticked by, the gaps were drawing out, and an oddly timed team decision from Ferrari to swap positions, giving Leclerc the lead over his partner, nearly offered Hamilton a double-overtaking opportunity. He wasn’t able to make a pass but now sat closely behind the Ferrari duo. Now the second set of stops was due, and Ferrari gave us a reminder of their incredible strategies. Sainz led the way into the pits with Hamilton closely behind, but an odd last-second decision saw Sainz leave the pit lane in confusion. As it turned out, the team wasn't prepared, so he had to abandon his 28th lap pit stop. As you can imagine, the driver wasn't thrilled about this.

Hamilton's charge was still underway after the second round of stops, and this time around under DRS, he overtook Verstappen for fourth on lap 32. The following eight laps went by with little drama, besides Perez's impressive double overtake further back. With 10 laps remaining, both Ferraris stood between Norris and Verstappen, but there was quite the gap that Norris would need to overcome. And with the laps quickly passing, it seemed like he was out of opportunities to stay in the championship battle. However, the Ferraris were closing in on Verstappen, and Sainz made short work of the Dutch driver.

Four laps later, Leclerc followed suit, and now Norris had the Red Bull in sight. Unfortunately for the McLaren fans, Verstappen was nothing more than a dot at the end of the straight, and all that was left to do was hope for a miracle. So in a last-ditch attempt, Lando pitted for softs and had a crack at the fastest lap. 

George Russell proved to be untouchable and crossed the line in first, followed by Hamilton with a truly impressive performance in second. Both Ferraris followed in third and fourth, but the world was waiting in anticipation to see the Red Bull of Max Verstappen wind its way through the last corner to take the world championship title.

Las Vegas set the scene for the 2024 championship title decider, and this year it once again went Dutch. It was a dominating start of the year for Verstappen, but mid-year improvements from McLaren proved to be threatening. Norris provided some fantastic racing, but it wasn’t enough to catch the fastest man in the world. It’s a well-deserved title for the now four-time champion, and McLaren is surely going to come back fighting in 2025.

As for the last two races, the rest of the field will continue to fight for the remaining positions in Qatar this weekend and in Abu Dhabi on the eighth of December. It was a season that returned amazing racing to F1, and with more than a couple of changes ahead of 2025, I can't wait for the new year.

For the full race results, you can find them here on the official F1 website.

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