Dark. Dry. Air +18…17С, highway +18…17С
In 2024, the Las Vegas Grand Prix was the first where the fate of the championship title could be decided earlier than planned. The urban track in the Mojave Desert greeted racers with cool weather, smooth asphalt and gusty winds on race day. As the weekend progressed, there was more discussion about the difficulties of warming up the tires than about the championship title.
Before the race, Max Verstappen was 62 points ahead of his only remaining rival, Lando Norris, and only needed to finish ahead of the McLaren driver to win his fourth championship title.
The stage was traditionally moved a day earlier local time, the race started at 10 p.m. on Saturday, while in Moscow it was already nine o’clock on Sunday morning.
Mercedes drivers led in all sessions of the weekend. Hamilton led the first two practice sessions; in the third Russell showed the best time and also won qualifying.
Russell and Sainz started the race from the front row of the grid, Gasly and Leclerc from the second row, and Verstappen and Norris fought for the title from the third row. Bottas lost five places at the start due to replacing a part of the power plant, Colapinto started from the pit lane after an accident in qualifying and permission from the doctors.
Pirelli traditionally brought the softest compounds to the city stage: C3, C4 and C5 in Hard, Medium and Soft roles. In the race, Alonso started on Soft, Perez, Bottas and Colapinto on Hard, the rest opted for Medium.
There were no accidents at the start. Russell kept the lead, Leclerc gained two positions, Magnussen lost two. Alonso overtook Perez and Magnussen, Hulkenberg overtook Piastri.
Piastri took the wrong starting position – the front wheels crossed the limit line – and was given a five-second time penalty.
Top ten in round 2: Russell – Leclerc – Sainz – Gasly – Verstappen – Norris – Tsunoda – Hulkenberg – Piastri – Hamilton.
On lap 4, Gasly passed Verstappen into fourth place.
Leclerc attacked Russell several times, but George retained the lead. Alonso visited the pits and switched from Soft to Hard.
On lap 6, Hamilton overtook Hulkenberg for ninth place.
On lap 8, Sainz passed Leclerc for second place. Verstappen overtook Leclerc and took the lead, moving up to third. Hamilton stayed ahead of Piastri in the battle for eighth place, Norris ahead of Gasly in the battle for fifth place.
Top ten in round 9: Russell – Sainz – Verstappen – Leclerc – Norris – Gasly – Hamilton – Tsunoda – Piastri – Hulkenberg.
On lap 10 Hamilton passes Tsunoda. Leclerc, Norris, Albon and Stroll change tires.
On the eleventh lap, Verstappen overtook Sainz in the battle for second place – and Carlos turned into the pits. Gasly, Tsunoda and Piastri also made a pit stop.
On lap 12, Verstappen, Ocon, Zhou and Magnussen came into the pits. Okon drove past his mechanics in the pits and did not change the tires.
On the 13th lap, Russell and Ocon made a pit stop, on the 14th – Hamilton, on the 15th – Hulkenberg.
Gasly complained about the loss of power from the power plant, drove into the pit lane in a smoking car and retired from the race.
On lap 17, Hamilton passed Norris for sixth place. Colapinto made a pit stop.
On lap 18, Hamilton and Norris pass Perez and Sergio drives into the pits. Magnussen and Bottas also change tires.
On lap 19, Albon passed Alonso for ninth place.
Top ten in round 20: Russell – Verstappen – Sainz – Leclerc – Hamilton – Norris – Tsunoda – Piastri – Albon – Hulkenberg.
On lap 25, Hulkenberg overtook Albon in the battle for ninth place – Alex was having overheating problems.
On lap 25, Perez passed Lawson for 13th place. Alonso made his second pit stop.
On lap 26 Piastri changed the tires. Albon, on the engineer’s orders, stopped the car in the pits and left the race.
On lap 27, Perez overtook Zhou for ninth place. Leclerc lets Sainz pass in Turn 14.
On the 28th lap, Colapinto, Verstappen and Hamilton changed tires, on the 29th – Sainz and Stroll, on the 30th – Tsunoda. Carlos crossed the white line when entering the pit lane and was awarded a penalty.
On the 31st lap, Norris changed tires, Piastri was ahead of Ocon in the battle for 10th place.
On lap 32, Hamilton takes the lead from Verstappen for third place. Leclerc changed the tires.
On lap 33, Russell made a pit stop, retaining the race lead. Perez changed his tires.
On the 34th lap Hulkenberg made a pit stop, on the 35th – Zhou.
On lap 36, Tsunoda passed Ocon for eighth place. Bottas made a pit stop.
On the 37th lap, Hulkenberg is ahead of Ocon, Alonso ahead of Lawson.
Top ten in lap 37: Russell – Hamilton – Verstappen – Sainz – Leclerc – Norris – Piastri – Tsunoda – Hulkenberg – Ocon.
On lap 38 Alonso passes Ocon for tenth place. Perez simultaneously passed Lawson and Magnussen at Turn 14 and moved up to 12th.
On lap 42 Sainz passed Verstappen and moved up to third place.
Hamilton gradually closed the gap to Russell, but George stepped up at the right time and took control of the situation.
Leclerc put pressure on Verstappen, but Max was in the DRS zone behind Sainz and did not allow himself to be attacked.
On lap 45, Hulkenberg passed Tsunoda for eighth place.
On lap 46 Ocon switched to Soft.
On lap 47, Leclerc is ahead of Verstappen in the battle for fourth place.
On lap 49, Norris switched to Soft to book the best lap of the race – and passed it. Perez stayed ahead of Alonso in the battle for tenth place.
George Russell won the Las Vegas Grand Prix, taking his second victory of the season and the third of his career. Lewis Hamilton made up eight positions and finished second. Mercedes achieved its 60th victory double in history, the first since Sao Paulo ’22.
Carlos Sainz climbed to the third step of the podium, his teammate Charles Leclerc finished the race in fourth – Ferrari closed the gap with McLaren in the constructors’ championship to 24 points with two rounds before the end of the season.
Max Verstappen finished fifth and thus won his fourth championship title ahead of schedule.
The battle continues next week in Qatar.
Race results
| Pilot | Team | Time | Speed | Pete |
| 1. D. Russell | Mercedes | 1:22:05,969 | 226,523 | 2 |
| 2. L.Hamilton | Mercedes | +7,313 | 226,187 | 2 |
| 3. K.Sainz | Ferrari | +11,906 | 225,977 | 2 |
| 4. S. Leclerc | Ferrari | +14.283 | 225,868 | 2 |
| 5. M. Verstappen | Red Bull | +16.582 | 225,763 | 2 |
| 6. L.Norris | McLaren | +43.385 | 224,546 | 3 |
| 7. O. Piastri | McLaren | +51.365 | 224,186 | 2 |
| 8. N. Hulkenberg | Hare | +59.808 | 223,806 | 2 |
| 9. Yu.Tsunoda | RB | +62.808 | 223,671 | 2 |
| 10. C. Perez | Red Bull | +63.114 | 223,658 | 2 |
| 11. F. Alonso | Aston Martin | +69.195 | 223,385 | 2 |
| 12. K. Magnussen | Hare | +69.803 | 223,358 | 1 |
| 13. G.Zhou | Sauber | +74.085 | 223,167 | 2 |
| 14. F. Colapinto | Williams | +75.172 | 223,118 | 2 |
| 15. L. Walk | Aston Martin | +84.102 | 222,721 | 2 |
| 16. L. Lawson | RB | +91.005 | 222,414 | 2 |
| 17. E.Okon | Alps | +1 round | 221,899 | 3 |
| 18. V. Bottas | Sauber | +1 round | 221,484 | 2 |
Best round: Lando Norris (McLaren) – 1:34.876 (50th lap, 235.292 km/h)
Reasons for the meetings
| Pilot | Team | Kroogov | Cause |
| P. Gasly | Alps | 15 | socket |
| A. Elbon | Williams | 25 | overheat |
Championship Position: Individual Competition
Championship position: Constructors’ Championship
| Team | Engine | Glasses | |
| = | 1. McLaren F1 Team | Mercedes | 608 |
| = | 2. Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari | 584 |
| = | 3. Oracle Red Bull Racing | Honda RBPT | 555 |
| = | 4. Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team | Mercedes | 425 |
| = | 5. Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team | Mercedes | 86 |
 |
6. MoneyGram Haas F1 Team | Ferrari | 50 |
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7. BWT Alpine F1 Team | Renault | 49 |
| = | 8. Visa Cash App RB F1 Team | Honda RBPT | 46 |
| = | 9. Williams Racing | Mercedes | 17 |
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
