Luke’s Weekend Review – Las Vegas GP 2023

Leave a Comment / News / By

Las Vegas GP: A Night of High Drama and Thrills in F1's Sin City Debut

Vegas 7

Round 22 and the first race in Las Vegas are over and I must say that the Las Vegas GP was better than anyone expected. It has given us drama, overtakes and action to keep anyone on our toes till the last lap, more about that later.

At the start it was lights out and Max Verstappen was able to get off the line better than Charles Leclerc but once they made it to Turn 1 Leclerc was still ahead and Max had the inside and pushed Leclerc and himself off the track, Leclerc was not impressed by this and was straight on the radio to his team for Max to give this position back. Red Bull on the other hand were confident that Max had the corner and told him not to give the position back but later in the race Max got a 5 second penalty for forcing a driver off the track, This in my opinion is a very lenient penalty as we’ve seen times and times before that drivers can make the time on track and they should have made Max give the position back in my opinion. When GP came on the radio to tell Max about the penalty and told him that he was given a 5 second penalty for that incident but also telling him that he was already 2 seconds ahead and to just keep eking out that gap to the stop, Max cheekily replies “Yeah that’s fine, send them my regards!” which is reinforcing my earlier statement on how lenient the penalty was.

Further in the back there was also chaos in the start as Fernando Alonso created a bit of a mess when he went for a lunge on Logan Sargent into turn 1 at the start but he locked the rears and spun which in the process of doing so he managed to collect Valtteri Bottas which in turn collected Sergio Perez as well getting them all front wing damage. Carlos Sainz also had a bit of a tangle with the 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton into turn 1 as Sainz hits Hamilton’s car and spins out putting Sainz from 12th to last in the race. The VSC was brought out due to the debris on track and the drivers in the incident took this opportunity to pit to fix the damage they picked up and get some fresh rubber. Perez opted to not change his front wing in the interest of not losing so much time in the pits.

After the VSC ended, drivers were doing their best to get some temperatures into their brakes and tyres given the track temperature and them going 40% slower under the VSC. One driver who was not able to get enough temperature in their tyres was Lando Norris who on lap 3 lost the rear of the car and crashed into the barriers and went straight into the runoff and hitting more barriers. The crash looked bad and Lando was taken to the medical centre and then a local hospital to be checked, fortunately Lando was back to the track later and all cleared up. This incident brought the safety car out which was a blessing for the drivers who had to pit on lap 1 as this brought them back into the race.

At the restart after the safety car ended, Max was able to get a good start and by the end of the fist lap he was already 2 seconds ahead of Leclerc in 2nd. Oscar Piastri further back, saw the opportunity and overtook Yuki Tsunoda by turn 1 which was quite an impressive move from the Australian Rookie. Sainz from the back was making moves as after the safety car he was flying through traffic trying to do some damage limitation, however his team came on the radio to tell him to cool down the car as otherwise they would have had to retire the car, Sainz responded by saying I’m trying and overtaking Daniel Ricciardo half a lap later.

Later in the race on lap 15 we see Leclerc get really close to Verstappen again as he gets into the DRS range, and we also hear Max saying that his tyres are gone. By lap 16 Leclerc was able to get past Verstappen which is an achievement on its own as I believe this was the first time in a long while where Max was overtaken under actual race conditions. This gives me a glimmer of hope for next year’s season that it might be a bit closer than it is this year. Max goes straight into the pits after he was overtaken by Leclerc to get some fresh tyres on to get back in the race and serve his 5 second penalty. In a small incident between Piastri and Hamilton we see Hamilton get a puncture and had to limp back to the pits to not get any damage and get some fresh tyres on, this put him in last once he came back out on track.

Dramatic Showdown at Vegas GP: Leclerc's Last Lap Heroics and Verstappen's Victory

By lap 19 we see Perez running in 2nd only 14 seconds behind the lead which if you think about it, was very impressive given that Perez was running close to last by the end of lap 1. On lap 21 Leclerc opts to pit for Hards and Perez takes the lead, Leclerc manages to come back out in 3rd behind Lance Stroll who was yet to pit. On lap 25 we see Sainz lose his momentum a bit as he loses 2 positions as both George Russell and Verstappen overtake him, one thing this race is giving us are overtakes as we notice that the DRS on the 2nd longest straight on the calendar seems to be quite powerful.

Later, on lap 25 Max makes a move on Russell and the pair collide together as Russell seems to not have seen Verstappen on his inside and turned onto him. Verstappen loses and endplate off his front wing and Russell loses some of his floor. This incident brought out the safety car once more which played right into Red Bulls hand as we see both Perez and Verstappen pit for fresh hards while Leclerc stayed out for position. Verstappen also opted not to change his front wing as he didn’t want to lose so much time in the pits under the safety car. Russell was given a 5 second penalty for the incident between himself and Verstappen.

On the restart, Leclerc was able to get a good start and manages to get away for a moment, but it wasn’t long before Perez was on his gearbox with DRS soon coming. And by lap 31 DRS was enabled and Perez was looking for to clear Leclerc once more, however he needed to also look behind as Piastri was catching after an impressive overtake on Pierre Gasly on the restart. By lap 32 Perez was able to reclaim the lead and get ahead of Leclerc.

Verstappen who was in 5th on the safety car restart was able to get back into 3rd place by lap 34 despite his front wing damage which didn’t seem to be hampering him at all in regard to race pace. Few positions behind Max we see the Alpine pair battling a bit on lap 34 where we see Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly switch places a couple times, but it was Ocon who came up on top of this battle and he was able to get past his teammate Gasly. From this point onwards, Gasly seemed to only go backwards as he went from 3rd at the restart to out of the points by the end of the race.

On lap 35 Leclerc was able to go past Perez once more which as a fan was amazing as we were seeing what we have been waiting to see all season and have some battles for the lead, however not too far behind there was Max catching and by lap 36, Max was able to clear Perez followed by Leclerc on Lap 37 which seemed like he had done enough once more to take the win for the 18th time this season.

Lando Norris was not the only driver we lost as on lap 47 we see Nico Hulkenberg drive off into the runoff to retire his car and a lap later we also see Yuki Tsunoda drive off the same run off to retire his car due to gearbox issues.

The battle between Perez was far from over as on lap 43 we see Leclerc go deep into one of the corners nearly hitting the wall which gave Perez the opportunity to go past once more and get Leclerc out of DRS range once more which seemed like it is race over for Leclerc and 3rd was the best he was going to get in Las Vegas. Leclerc though was not about to give up after an amazing race as on lap 46 Leclerc seemed to find a second wind and started closing in on Perez once more and on the last lap on the last DRS straight he went for a lunge and was able to get past Perez in an amazing overtake and was able to finish in 2nd, Perez for the 2nd race in a row lost a position on the last lap and was not able to get it back.

Max Verstappen takes the chequered flag, followed by Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Fernando Alonso, and Oscar Piastri form the top 10. Leclerc managed to bag driver of the day, which despite starting on pole and finishing in 2nd, he drove brilliantly and fought to the last second to get the result he did.

Who do you think was the biggest winners and the biggest losers of the Las Vegas GP? We now head to Abu Dhabi for the last race of the 2023 season.

 

Share this article with your friends

Leave a Comment

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