Las Vegas - Race

The Las Vegas qualifying was thrilling, and Saturday's Grand Prix was destined to be even more captivating. A rare night race on a cold track with the driver's championship on the line promised a night neither the drivers nor the viewers would ever forget. After all was said and done, did it deliver on that promise? 

At the start of the race, the preferred compound was the medium one, with only Alonso bolting on the softs and Perez, Stroll, and Colapinto deciding to use the hards. The Williams driver suffered a significant crash during qualifying, and it wasn't certain whether he could participate in the race at all. He did decide to start, but due to the work done on his car, he needed to begin from the pit lane. 

Russell had a good launch, and he easily kept his lead. Behind him, Sainz and Gasly focused on each other, giving Leclerc the perfect opportunity to do the same thing he did in Austin and use the side of the track for an overtake that put him in P2. Norris tried to keep his championship hopes alive by overtaking Verstappen before the end of the first lap but didn't manage a move good enough to put his McLaren in front of the Red Bull. Behind them, many drivers swapped positions, with the most surprising change being that of Piastri, who lost a place to the Haas of Hulkenberg. 

Leclerc sensed the chance for another race win and wasn't going to let it get away from him without a fight. He took the fastest lap away from the race leader and began closing the distance between them. For a while, it seemed all but sure that he would find a way past the Mercedes but then his tires completely gave out. Instead of chasing the lead, he began rapidly losing both pace and places, being overtaken by both Sainz and Verstappen. He pitted on lap 9, unable to continue on the rapidly deteriorating tires. While it may seem like an early pit stop, it wasn't the first one. The honor of the earliest change of tires went to Alonso who boxed after only 5 laps. 

Norris also pitted on lap 9, right as the day that was already looking quite grim for McLaren, turned even worse with the help of a 5-second penalty that was given to Piastri for a false start. The young Australian served it during his first stop, on lap 10, the same lap on which Sainz changed his tires to minimize the damage of being overtaken by Verstappen. After a stop of his own, the quicker of the Red Bulls still came out in front of the Spaniard. 

Having lost their great starting positions the Ferraris were trying to make progress through the field, as was Hamilton, whose Mercedes was absolutely flying on the cold track. The race wasn't looking quite as great for Alpine. After Gasly's magnificent qualifying effort the team was hoping to add some more points to their tally but at lap 16, Gasly erratically complained about having no power. While his engineer initially dismissed his concern, the tide changed as the power unit gave out completely and Gasly drove into the pits to become the first retirement of the race. The second driver who did not finish was Alex Albon.

In the middle part of the race, with different teams opting for different pit strategies the positions changed rapidly all throughout the field. The one thing that remained constant was Russell's comfortable lead over the Red Bull and the Ferarris who had to put their focus into fighting off the relentless attacks of Hamilton. 

A curious thing happened when Sainz began complaining about losing grip on his tires. The driver all but begged his team to let him drive through the pit lane and it seemed like the team listened. Upon getting closer to the pit entry, he kept to the left side of the track, scrubbed off his speed, and... Cut the pit entry line to rejoin the race while Hamilton who was right behind him drove in to get fresh rubber. The moment cost the Spaniard a couple of seconds and ultimately a position since after he pitted a lap later, he came out behind the Mercedes. The strange situation was caused by Ferrari telling him that they were not quite ready for a pit. Strangely enough, Sainz wasn't the only driver who had to go through a situation like this one: Esteban Ocon drove through the pit lane without changing tires. 

The second wave of pit stops, a necessity given the incredibly high tire degradation, saw Russell staying in front with Hamilton in second and Verstappen in third. The two Ferraris were on Red Bull's tail although tensions were brewing within the Italian team. After Leclerc's pit stop, Sainz was asked to stay behind the Monegasque and let him warm up his new tires. He didn't listen to the order and then did not switch positions with his teammate. While one wouldn't be able to see the discontent on track, after the race Leclerc made his feelings clear over the team radio. 

Hamilton put the pressure on Russell, significantly decreasing the gap between them with every lap, while Verstappen focused on trying to keep Sainz behind. Unfortunately for him, the two Ferraris were quicker than him and both managed to overtake him. Sainz did so on lap 41, securing a spot on the podium, while Leclerc found a chance on lap 47. 

Norris, who found himself in P6, knew that his only chance to score some additional points was to take advantage of the free pit that the gap between him and his teammate provided and try for the fastest lap. He did add the additional point to his tally, but even that wasn't enough for him to stay in contention for the driver's championship. 

For the fourth time in a row, Max Verstappen became the champion, this time under the beautiful lights of Vegas. Despite his struggles in the second half of the season, he never lost his resolve and fought with all his might, once again proving to all who doubted him that he is an incredibly talented driver. With this win, he equaled the Red Bull record of four consecutive WDCs in a row, set in 2013 by Sebastian Vettel.

Last year people laughed when he won the championship during a sprint race and although this time he managed to do it during a Grand Prix, the circumstances were still somewhat strange as he had won it during a race in which he didn't even score a podium. The top three spots in Vegas belonged to Carlos Sainz and the two Mercedes drivers. Although Lewis Hamilton tried to catch up to his teammate, in the end, he had to settle for second place, while George Russell secured his third ever Grand Prix Victory. 

Order of the grid: 

1. George Russell

2. Lewis Hamilton

3. Carlos Sainz

4. Charles Leclerc

5. Max Verstappen

6. Lando Norris

7. Oscar Piastri

8. Nico Hulkenberg

9. Yuki Tsunoda

10. Sergio Perez

11. Fernando Alonso

12. Kevin Magnussen

13. Zhou Guanyu

14. Franco Colapinto

15. Lance Stroll

16. Liam Lawson

17. Esteban Ocon

18. Valtteri Bottas

DNF: Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon