On paper the Las Vegas grand prix was just like any other grand prix so far this year with Leclerc taking pole, Verstappen winning and Sergio Perez making a come back drive to finish on the podium. However it wasn’t all plain sailing for Max Verstappen, during a race that might have just regained some fans faith in the race for the future.

The race got underway with a dramatic start that saw Verstappen push Leclerc out wide to take the lead into turn one. Behind him there was plenty of drama with many driver’s overestimating the amount of grip that they would have which caught many out including Fernando Alonso who spun going into turn one, making contact with Perez and Hamilton forcing them all into an early pit stop. The other Spaniard Carlos Sainz also went deep into turn one, hitting the back of Hamilton’s car which also forced him onto an early pit stop adding to what was already a miserable race for him.

Another victim of the tracks cold temperature was Lando Norris who had a huge moment at turn 12 as he lost the back end coming out of turn 11 sending him into the turn 12 barriers bringing out the safety car. He has been sent to hospital after the crash for precautionary checks.

Verstappen was handed a 5 second time penalty for the incident at turn one with Leclerc to which he casually replied with “Yeah that’s fine, send them my regards” as he drove off into the distance like he has done at pretty much every grand prix this year. But then the unexpected happened as Leclerc started to gain on Verstappen, taking the lead off him on lap 16 off the race and with a 5 second penalty looming over him, could Verstappen really take the fight to Leclerc?

As Verstappen pitted to serve his penalty he came out behind his teammate Sergio Perez, who after pitting on lap one had passed Esteban Ocon’s Alpine for second place on lap 18 and was starting to become a real threat to Charles Leclerc who was still cruising out in front. By lap 25 things had settled down with Leclerc having made his stop was running 3rd while Verstappen had made his way through the field up to 5th place behind George Russel’s Mercedes. Verstappen went for the move into turn 12 but Russel closed the door on him making contact in a move that he said was “totally his fault” when speaking to the press after the race. This incident brought out the safety car while Perez was still in front and Leclerc had just pitted meaning that Perez had essentially a free stop as did Max Verstappen who made a second pit stop under the safety car. Leclerc stayed out and after the two redbulls had made their stop the top the top 5 were Leclerc, Perez, Gasly, Piastry and Verstappen with 22 laps still to go!

This left Leclerc and the two redbulls to fight for the lead with Perez taking it off Leclerc into turn 14 on lap 32. But Leclerc wasn’t done yet as he came back at Perez on lap 35, re-taking the lead of what was turning out to be a fairly eventful race. By this point Verstappen had made his way up into 3rd place and was piling on the pressure for teammate Sergio Perez who he managed to pass on lap 36 and then passed Leclerc on the next lap and was now leading the race.

Behind them the two alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly battled over 5th place nearly taking each other out on multiple occasions before team orders got in the way telling the drivers to hold position. Back at the front Leclerc was now under threat of losing second place to Sergio Perez and on lap 43 the pressure got to him and he went off the road and was now behind Perez.

But nothing could stop Max Verstappen, not even a penalty or contact with George Russell as he cruised home to take his 18th win of the season and his 53rd in formula one, tying Sebastian Vettel’s record to make himself tied for the 3rd most wins in formula one history behind only Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton! Behind him though the battle was on for second place between Leclerc and Perez. Leclerc overtook Perez down the strip on the last lap to conclude what was an entertaining race in Las Vegas.

After the race, there was an entertaining moment when instead of the normal podium procedure where the drivers sit in the cool down room before going to spray the champagne. The drivers were instead chauffeured to the Bellagio Hotel for interviews in what’s now being called the cool down car.

While it got off to a disastrous start on Thursday the Las Vegas Grand Prix has somewhat redeemed itself today with an entertaining race for the penultimate round of the 2023 Formula one season.

Race Results

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	50	1:29:08.289	25
2	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	50	+2.070s	18
3	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	50	+2.241s	15
4	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	50	+18.665s	12
5	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	50	+20.067s	10
6	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	50	+20.834s	8
7	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	50	+21.755s	6
8	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	50	+23.091s	4
9	14	Fernando Alonso	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	50	+25.964s	2
10	81	Oscar Piastri	MCLAREN MERCEDES	50	+29.496s	2
11	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPINE RENAULT	50	+34.270s	0
12	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	50	+43.398s	0
13	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	50	+44.825s	0
14	3	Daniel Ricciardo	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	50	+48.525s	0
15	24	Zhou Guanyu	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	50	+50.162s	0
16	2	Logan Sargeant	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	50	+50.882s	0
17	77	Valtteri Bottas	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	50	+85.350s	0
18	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT	46	DNF	0
19	27	Nico Hulkenberg	HAAS FERRARI	45	DNF	0
NC	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	2	DNF	0

Stay tuned for the Abu Dhabi grand prix next weekend.

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