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What the teams said – Race day in Las Vegas
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Mercedes
Russell made a great start from pole, and didn’t put a foot wrong as he drove to his second victory of the season. It was an assured performance from start to finish, and he was ably backed up by his team mate. Hamilton had to work much harder, coming from P10 to claim second. He had to make plenty of moves stick on track, and even managed to eat into his team mate’s lead but ran out of laps to catch and challenge Russell for the win.
Lewis Hamilton, 2nd
"I’m really happy for the team. It was an exceptional performance by everyone this weekend to claim the 1-2. The car felt strong throughout and I had a really fun and enjoyable race. It felt great to be moving forward throughout as I had a long way to come back from! It is slightly bittersweet as if we had qualified where we should have yesterday, I think I could have won. Nevertheless, I didn’t think I would have been able to finish P2 today before the race so I’m very happy. Congratulations to George on a great drive to take victory. Congratulations must also go to Max too who claimed the title today. He’s done a fantastic job all year and is a deserving champion."
George Russell, 1st
"To win in Las Vegas feels incredible! I’m so thankful for the team and happy for them that we got this win. We had great pace throughout and we were comfortable in the lead. You are always thinking that something might happen though, such as a safety car, but it was clean throughout. It was almost a perfect weekend as we took pole position, led almost every lap and took the 1-2. It was great to be up on the podium with Lewis; he drove a fantastic race to come through from P10. We couldn’t ask for more.
"I was meant to be flying out of here tonight but that’s not going to happen now! We will enjoy this night as a team as everyone deserves it. We will then sit down on Monday and go through the data to understand why we were so quick this weekend. Hopefully that can help us as we go into the final two races of the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Finally, I’d like to say congratulations to Max on his fourth title. He is a deserving champion, has driven at an incredible level all year, and is the man we will all be chasing in 2025."
Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
"It has been a while since we took a 1-2 so this is a fantastic result for the team. The colder conditions on a low grip circuit such as this clearly suited us. Nevertheless, everyone did a great job to execute well across the weekend. We have been quick from the start of FP1 on Thursday and continued that into Friday and Saturday. We got the car in a great window and that is really pleasing.
"George managed the race superbly. He held off the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc early on and from there was in complete command of the Grand Prix. Lewis also drove fantastically to cut his way through the field from P10 to P2. He showed just how quick he is to secure a brilliant result for the team. Finally, congratulations to Max Verstappen on winning the title; he is a deserving champion, and we hope to take the fight to him next year."
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
"We didn't come to Las Vegas thinking that this track would suit us, so it's been great to see the car working so well. We’ve been quick from lap one of practice on Thursday. We knew from those sessions that the single lap would be strong, but it was very encouraging to see the race pace today.
"George did an amazing job managing from the front, covering off safety car risks and making sure he kept his tyres in better shape than the cars behind. It was another well-deserved win and the third of his F1 career. Lewis meanwhile outperformed all our simulations today to achieve P2. His final stint was immense; he'll be frustrated that he lost too much time in traffic to allow him to fight for the win but the 1-2 is of course a great result for the team. We now have two races to go in the season. We will be giving it everything we can to achieve similar success in Qatar and Abu Dhabi."
1 / 3
Ferrari
Leclerc made a great start, picking off Gasly and his own team mate to run second. But he overcooked his tyres chasing Russell, and had to pit after dropping to fourth. From there things got a little messy for Ferrari, who had both drivers tripping over each other, with Sainz vocal on the radio about pitting early second time around. He even tried to come in only to be told to stay out, lucky not to pick up a penalty for crossing the pit lane entry line. In the end he managed to grab a podium, as Ferrari reduced the gap to McLaren in the constructors’. But there will be an inquest, with both drivers unhappy with how strategy was managed.
Charles Leclerc, 4th
"I finished the race where I started it today, so it wasn’t that exciting, but if you look at the details it was quite an eventful one. Unfortunately, we degraded the fronts on the first stint on Mediums, then we were able to come back on the Hards which were working better.
"Big congratulations to Max (Verstappen). He deserves this championship title, he has had an amazing season and always maximised his results which has paid off for him. It gives us motivation to be even stronger next year and hopefully we can put him under some more pressure then.
"We will push hard in the last two races to try to finish the season ahead of McLaren."
Carlos Sainz, 3rd
"Considering the pace Mercedes had today I think we maximised the team's points, and even without the misunderstanding at the pit entry on my second stop I don’t think we would have been able to stay ahead of Lewis. I was expecting to be more competitive after what we had seen in practice but we struggled quite a lot with graining today.
"We will keep fighting in the next races to keep the battle for the Constructors’ title open until the end. On to Qatar."
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal
"First of all, congratulation to Max Verstappen on winning the title. As for our race, we struggled a lot in the first stint on the Mediums, losing about two seconds per lap towards the end and again at the end of the second stint, the first one on the Hards. Overall, our pace on the Hards was decent, but we lost too much time in the early stages and generally our pace was a bit too inconsistent.
"In the end today’s race was a case of damage limitation, but at some point we have to score more points than everyone else and we cannot just settle for this damage limitation if we want to keep the fight open. We scored 12 points more than McLaren and 16 more than Red Bull. Let’s see what we can do next week in Qatar, a track that on paper does not suit us best, but in which there is a Sprint and so even more points on offer. As a team, we need to do a better job at the next race."
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Red Bull
Verstappen held onto fifth off the line despite a challenge from Norris behind, and then seemed to have better race pace than many as he climbed up to second place. But he couldn’t keep the faster Mercedes of Hamilton at bay, and opted not to overly fight the two Ferraris either as they came back past. He finished where he started, but that was more than enough to seal a fourth straight drivers’ crown for the Dutchman. Perez managed to recover from P15 on the grid to grab the final point on offer, managing a double overtake on a night where he looked racy, but started too far back to make a dent in the top 10.
Max Verstappen, 5th
“It feels incredible to win here today and I am so proud to win the Championship. It has been quite a year and I’m proud of how we handled everything as a Team. We started off the season really strong and then it became quite tough; we never wanted to give up and got the best result we could, barely made any mistakes and that is what you need to win a title. We stuck together as a Team and we pushed back really hard and came back stronger. I’m super proud of everyone of what we achieved and also of myself with how we have worked together this season. Today I stayed calm and overtook drivers one by one. I tried to hang in there and do my own race and we pulled it off. Ultimately every Championship win is different, so that also makes it really special and it really means a lot to us. I am very proud to be part of this Team, especially as we are now celebrating our fourth World Title. It’s simply lovely."
Sergio Perez, 10th
“Congratulations to Max, I think he has had the best season I have ever seen from a driver, because a lot of the time we did not have the best car and Max made the difference a lot of weekends. The way he pushed the Team forwards, he was just a pure force and I think this has been the best year from him in the four we have been together. He has been tremendous, well done to him for all the success he has had, he deserves it. For me today, I think the pace was the positive thing about the race, but unfortunately, we may have got the strategy wrong because we went out on the hard initially when the track was at it’s worse. The degradation was a lot higher than expected and we used the best tyre in the beginning unfortunately, so I had to do quite a long stint on the medium. I feel like we are getting there but we need that extra jump, and I don’t feel like we are getting there so, hopefully for the coming weekends we can come back stronger."
Christian Horner, Team Principal
“This marks the culmination of an epic campaign and a fantastic win for Max. Not just today but throughout an uncompromising year and at times without the necessary tools at his disposal. He has inspired in the cockpit but out of it also. The way he has conducted himself and the way he has worked with the engineers and wider team has been phenomenal. Together with 2021, this was one of the toughest years the Team have experienced. But Max has once again elevated himself to another level of exceptionalism. He’s won more than double the races of any other driver, mounting a formidable campaign and at times having to overcome insurmountable margins. On the days when we didn’t deliver a win or when he had everything thrown at him, he has still delivered points. He has been extraordinary. Behind the scenes there was a huge effort to help bring this championship over the line. It is something to celebrate here at track but equally back at the factory. I am incredibly grateful for all the work and late nights that went into this success and everyone back in Milton Keynes can be proud of their hand in this championship. Ultimately though, this win belongs to Max. Congratulations on number four Max, you deserve every moment of it!”
1 / 3
McLaren
McLaren seemed to lack race pace in Vegas, with Norris unable to stick with the front runners. He did manage to pit late on for some fresh tyres, with which to secure the bonus point for fastest lap – as McLaren did everything to limit their losses to Ferrari in the constructors’. Piastri was penalised for a false start after parking up slightly outside his pit box, something many thought was unlucky. That dropped him back into he pack after the first pit stops, but he managed to fight back to come home just behind his team mate.
Lando Norris, 6th
"Firstly, a big congratulations to Max on winning the Drivers’ Championship, he deserved it. He drove better than everyone over the course of the year, and rarely makes a mistake, so congrats to him for delivering once again.
“As for today, it was a reasonable race but we didn’t have any pace in the car, and experienced difficult, challenging conditions. It’s just not been our weekend, we struggled a lot. Clearly we have a lot of things we need to improve on the car for the future.
“We'll now turn our attention to next weekend and coming back stronger in Qatar, a circuit that should suit our car better than Vegas. All our focus is on these last two races.”
Oscar Piastri, 7th
“A very difficult evening, we just struggled with the tyres, so there’s definitely some things to look at. I don’t think we hoped for a whole lot more than where we finished, but obviously the gap was a bit disappointing. OK points and hopefully the next two are a bit more fun for us.
“Finally, congratulations to Max on winning the Driver’s Championship. He’s fought well throughout the year and is well deserving of this fourth championship.”
Andrea Stella, Team Principal
“Before anything else, I’d like to express personally, and on behalf of our team, congratulations to Max Verstappen. Four-time World Champion, one of the greatest in the history of the sport. He thoroughly deserves this title, he was incredibly consistent, even when his car wasn’t the best. Max and Red Bull Racing overall as a team supporting him have done a superb job. Well done to them.
“For our part, we can be proud that we’ve given Max something to think about and taken the title race this deep into the season. I think we lost too many points at the start of the year, when we were not competitive enough. Once the car improved, I think we’ve proven we have the qualities as a team, and the qualities in Lando and Oscar, to contend for both titles.
“Tonight, we can’t be happy with the result, because we go racing to finish on the podium, and we go racing to win. We had some headaches with car and tyre performance, and we’ll be doing a lot of analysis between here and Lusail. Considering the weekend we’ve had, I think we were able to limit the damage this evening. Qatar and Abu Dhabi should be more suitable ground for the MCL38 – but there are four teams in contention for victory all of the time. That’s great for Formula 1, but it means we have to be performing at our absolute best if we are to win the Constructors’ Championship. Not very long ago, the notion that we would be in contention for the title would have been incredible, unthinkable – but now it’s realistic and we have to finish the job.”
1 / 2
Haas
Hulkenberg drove superbly under the lights in Vegas to secure four points for Haas, which was enough to lift them above Alpine into sixth in the constructors’. A long second stint and fresher tyres late on were the keys to his success, as he was able to pass rival Tsunoda for the ‘best of the rest’ finishing slot. Magnussen tried an ambitious one-stop on a night where tyre degradation was high, the only car to do so. He wound up just outside the points, but did have some entertaining battles along the way.
Nico Hulkenberg, 8th
“I’m very pleased; I think P8 is the best we could’ve achieved today, being the fifth best team. It was a clean race, good execution and as expected, it was very challenging on the tyre side with graining – on the front especially. That kept everyone occupied and busy, but we came out of that well and offset ourselves a little bit to our main competition and that worked well, and our pace was also decent.”
Kevin Magnussen, 12th
“We did a one-stop which wasn’t the right thing I think, and that’s why we’re P12. The pace was good on the hard tyre, just bad on the graining while on the medium. We struggled but kept going on, and lost everything, so had to build it back up on the hards. It didn’t feel like we got the best out of it.”
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal
“I think that’s the best P8 we’ve ever achieved. It wasn’t an easy race to manage, but what I’m so happy about is that nobody panicked, and everyone stayed calm. Everyone, including the team back at the factory, did their bit, and to have that strong two-stop race with Nico to get P8 is great. With Kevin, after the first lap was losing position etc. the only way we could get him back into the game was one-stop. His team did as well as they could in that scenario, nearly getting back to P10. I think it was a huge team effort, and back up into P6 in the Constructors’. After that terrible result in Brazil, it’s been an amazing reaction, and it gives people confidence, so I couldn’t be happier.”
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RB
Lawson had an eventful race, fighting Magnussen on the first few laps, Perez multiple times and even at one point stuck in the middle of a three-car-wide fight with those two. In the end he couldn’t make it back to the points, but his team mate delivered for RB. Tsunoda held onto P7 for much of the evening, but lost out to Piastri and then a fresher-shod Hulkenberg late on. His two points at least keep RB in touch with Haas and Alpine in the fight for sixth in the constructors’.
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Liam Lawson, 16th
“A difficult race today. The first stint wasn’t too bad, we were in and amongst the group around us, but it’s really hard to overtake, or at least it was for us. We tried to one stop and stretch it, but I think we tried to stretch that second stint a little too long and ended up boxing, coming out nowhere, it just didn’t work. We had similar issues today as we did yesterday, which is costing us quite a lot, but we’ll look into it and solve it for next week. Yuki’s done well to score points today, we need to make the most of the next two races and try to end strong. Congratulations to Max for four World Titles, what an achievement, he fully deserves it after all the tough fights this year. Very well deserved to him and the whole team.”
Yuki Tsunoda, 9th
“It wasn’t an easy race today but we maximized all that we could, and I think as a team we made such a good step forward throughout the weekend. Obviously, I’m happy with finishing in the points today, but at the same time, it is pretty annoying as we lost a few points for the Constructors’ championship. I was feeling good and confident in the car, which is important, especially in a circuit like this, so I’m definitely happy with that and with the strong race pace we showed. There are two races left, we’ll be fighting hard until the end of the season and I’m already looking forward to racing in Qatar next week. Finally, big congratulations to Max for the win of his fourth World Championship. He has had an impressive year so far and he fully deserves to be crowned World Champion once again.”
Laurent Mekies, Team Principal
“First of all, congratulations to Max Verstappen and our friends at Oracle Red Bull Racing on an incredible achievement in winning yet another Drivers’ championship. Overall, the team and the drivers executed another strong weekend here in Las Vegas. After a very solid qualifying performance to start P7, Yuki had a busy race, with some great overtaking moves, battling with our rivals all race long. Of course, it is frustrating to lose a place with just 5 laps to go, but overall he showed a good race pace in bringing home two very important championship points. It was a more difficult weekend for Liam and his car was certainly very tricky to drive around here, something which we still need to understand fully. He showed good pace at some stages of the race today but having qualified further back he spent a lot of time in traffic. It is incredibly tight in the Constructors championship battle, and fight is only going to ramp up even more over the last two rounds of the season in the Middle East, starting in Qatar in a few days’ time. Finally, well done to the promoter for a very special Grand Prix week here in Vegas, with an incredible atmosphere on and off the track at an event that epitomises the new style of Formula 1.”
Guillaume Dezoteux, Head of Vehicle Performance
“Yuki drove a solid race and brought home 2 points which could prove to be vital in our battle in the Constructors’ championship. Looking back at how the weekend started, with a difficult car balance and tyre degradation, we can be satisfied with the progress made. The race was about finding the right approach for managing the tyres and getting the strategy right, and we did that. Once more, we had great pit-stops and Yuki overtook Gasly in the pits which is a fantastic reward for the mechanics and for the team. Liam had a difficult race. He has been struggling more with the car balance and the tyre grip which is something we need to understand better in the coming days.”
1 / 2
Aston Martin
With both cars starting down the order, Aston Martin opted to roll the dice and start Alonso on the softs. With no early Safety Car, that strategy call didn’t work and he was forced into a stop to get rid of the C5 rubber. That was at least a good pit stop though – Stroll’s wasn’t, the team not ready with tyres for the Canadian a few laps later. Somehow, Alonso fought back to hold onto P10 late on, but lost out on a point to a recovering Perez in the last few laps.
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Fernando Alonso, 11th
"The pace of the car was much better in the race for us and it was a nice surprise to be fighting in the points until the last few laps. The strategy was good, the pitstops were fast and I felt a little happier with the car in general. But there is no reward for eleventh position, and I think we deserved to score some points tonight. I'm looking forward to getting back into the car for Qatar as we try to find more performance. Also, I would like to congratulate Max [Verstappen] on winning his fourth Drivers' Championship, he has deserved to win this title."
Lance Stroll, 15th
"It was a difficult race as I had no radio from the first lap so couldn't communicate with the team. We'd planned to stay on the medium tyre for slightly longer at the start of the race, but I could feel it dropping off quickly and wanted to get on the hard tyre. I just couldn't get that message through to the pit wall. It meant that, when I did come in, the team wasn't prepared for the stop and so it cost us about 20 seconds. We knew it was going to be a tough race, but I think P12 could have been possible without the radio issues causing a slow stop. As a team, we know where we need to improve the car but there's still a lot of work to do to get there. Finally, congratulations to Max [Verstappen] on his fourth Championship title – it's really well deserved."
Mike Krack, Team Principal
"We performed a bit better than we expected this evening in Las Vegas, but there was no reward for our efforts as Fernando just missed out on the final point after a strong performance. Almost everyone pitted twice, but we went quite aggressive with Fernando's strategy [starting on the Soft] and in the end he ran out of tyre life [on the Hard tyres]. This left him defenceless against [Sergio] Perez in the closing laps.
"Lance's race was more complicated because we had no radio communications with him for the entire race. It resulted in a big loss of time when he pitted on lap nine because there was no way for Lance to give prior warning that he was coming in. We had to manage the race via the pit board and couldn't recover the lost time. Even without the radio, Lance did a good job with tyre management and drove a strong race.
"We send our congratulations to Max [Verstappen] for his success this year and for securing his fourth world title this evening. Our attention now turns to Qatar next weekend – a totally different challenge in terms of layout and temperatures. We will keep positive, put this week's learning to good use, and try to come back stronger."
1 / 2
Williams
Albon drove well in the opening stages of the race to rise through the field, and looked on for points after the first round of pit stops. But it looked like he might have picked up some debris in his brake ducts, with worse to follow when he had to come in and retire the car with a suspected PU issue. Colapinto started from the pit lane after the team did a brilliant job to fix up his car following yesterday’s crash. He fought hard, but couldn’t recover towards the points.
Alex Albon, DNF
"We had a good car today and could’ve scored some good points, so it’s frustrating to retire with a suspected PU issue. We need to understand whether it was a similar problem to FP2 or the same issue we had in Singapore, but we’ll go away and try to get to the bottom of it. We’ve experienced some hard times this year, so we have to stay strong. From my side, these things happen but I wanted a good result for the team to try to repay everyone for the hard work they’ve put in during these really tough times. It wasn’t meant to be, so we’ll try to put our focus on the last two races of the season and hopefully, we can turn things around."
Franco Colapinto, 14th
"It was a tough weekend. Qualifying yesterday was feeling very good, and I was getting more and more comfortable but then I started the lap too close to Gasly, had a very messy last corner and unfortunately finished with a lot of damage. From where we started in the pit lane today, we were able to make some progress and, overall, did a good job. It was difficult to manage the tyres as we had a lot of graining. I must say a huge thank you to the garage team, who have been the heroes of the last couple of races. They had to rebuild a whole car yesterday for me to race today and it’s amazing how good they are. They are the best out there and I’m very grateful. We know more opportunities are coming next week in Qatar and we will bounce back."
Sven Smeets, Sporting Director
"Firstly, it was a fantastic job by the team in the garage again to get Franco’s car ready to race and I want to thank each and every one of them for their determination and hard work. Both cars were running well at the start of the race but frustratingly we had to retire Alex’s car, despite points being on the table. We will go away and investigate what caused the PU problem.
"Franco put in a decent recovery drive, but we couldn’t make it into the top 10 having started from the pit lane. We now look forward to Qatar where the Sprint format will give us two chances to score points."
1 / 2
Kick Sauber
Zhou had a strong race for Kick Sauber, keeping out of trouble and even running in the top 10 at times. But he couldn’t hold on as other cars recovered, winding up with his second-best finish of the season. As for Bottas, a five-place grid drop saw him starting last on the grid. He gambled with a hard tyre for the opening stint, and then ran long on the mediums but couldn’t make it to the end of the race, pitting a second time and dropping down the order.
Valtteri Bottas, 18th
"First of all, congratulations to Max for clinching the title tonight - it's quite the place to do it! For me, it was a very tough race as the tyres didn't last as long as we were hoping for. We had planned one stop, but it became clear that we could only make it to the end with a two-stopper. Starting on hards, only a one-stop strategy could have given me an advantage, but it didn't work out today, it caught us a bit by surprise. Pace-wise, I couldn't make enough progress, and I focused also on playing the team game to support Zhou. It was just a tough day out there, but the car seems to be making some progress so hopefully we can have two better weekends to end the season."
Zhou Guanyu, 13th
"Today was a good race for me. It’s been a while since we fought in the mid-pack near the top ten, and today, I feel we finally had a real chance. I believe we maximised the result we could have had with our pace, especially considering there was not a lot of drama happening ahead. Still, it's encouraging to be back where we were this weekend. It’s a step forward and it gives us confidence: things are looking more promising as we head to Qatar for the next round.”
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative
"We can be reasonably satisfied with today's race pace. Zhou battled in the midfield with our direct competitors throughout the evening, fighting until the last lap to secure P13. We switched both cars to a two-stop strategy to try to limit tyre graining and maintain performance. Valtteri's race was much more difficult: starting last on the grid, we knew that he’d be up against it without any Safety Car. He went through the first part of the race on hard tyres, then had a very good last stint but, unfortunately, as soon as he got lapped by the leading cars, there was no more chance for him to recover positions. All in all, this weekend showed qualifying improvements, and we saw Zhou’s return to strong racing form. We have two races ahead of us to build on these improvements, and we will need to give everything – we won’t be giving up.”
1 / 2
Alpine
Alpine had a night to forget after such a strong Friday. Gasly lost a place to Leclerc on the opening lap and was also overtaken by Verstappen. But he still looked on for a solid haul of points, until smoke started to billow from the back of his car and he had to pull into the pit lane to retire. As for Ocon, he had to pit twice for his first stop after managing to miss his pit box the first time around in a bizarre incident that cost him any chance of points.
Esteban Ocon, 17th
“It was not our race today and we finished outside the points. We need to review what happened at our first pit-stop as it meant we effectively did a drive through the pit lane. It is a pity and we need to come back from this. We did not take the opportunity today where I was confident of at least being in the fight for points. We will review everything and aim to do better in Qatar next time out. Finally, congratulations to Max [Verstappen] on winning his fourth world title. I’m very happy for him, he deserves it as he’s done an amazing job all season.”
Pierre Gasly, DNF
“It’s a very disappointing feeling today for all of us in the team. After the high of yesterday with our Qualifying performance and strong grid position, today is a tough one to take. We knew the race would be challenging but, in the end, we weren’t able to truly show our potential after an issue with the car forced us to retire. We will learn from this and aim to carry our pace into Qatar next weekend. There is a lot to play for and we will do our best to come back stronger. Congratulations to Max [Verstappen] on winning the title. He has been driving at an incredible level all season and he thoroughly deserves this achievement.”
Oliver Oakes, Team Principal
“It’s not the outcome we were hoping for today. A Power Unit issue brought an early end to Pierre’s race. With Esteban, a mistake with his first stop meant he had to stop twice. We need to put this weekend behind us. The pace we showed yesterday, and in the race, underlines the positive improvements we have made in recent weeks and gives us reason to be optimistic heading into the final two races. Also, well done to Max [Verstappen] for winning the Championship for a fourth time – an amazing achievement.”
1 / 2
Pirelli
Mario Isola, Motorsport Director
“First of all, congratulations to Max Verstappen on his fourth world title, an incredible achievement for a youngster who has only recently turned 27. Well done too to Red Bull, as this is the eighth time one of their drivers has been crowned champion. After the start of this season seemed to be following the same pattern as last year’s, Max had a tough time of it, but fought hard race after race, even though he did not have the most competitive package, proving to be an extraordinary champion.
“Congratulations must also go to Formula 1 for having put on an amazing event here in Las Vegas, full of sights and sounds and above all, a great show on track which definitely proved popular with the crowd of over 300,000 spectators who came to the track over the weekend and the millions watching on television and on-line.
“As for tyre performance, it was not a particularly clear cut Grand Prix, starting with the strategy choices. Prior to the race, the one-stop was clearly the quickest option but in the end, almost all the drivers pitted twice, if we leave out Norris who made an additional stop to go for the point for setting the fastest race lap and Ocon, who preferred not to take any risks at the end. From an initial analysis of the data, this was due mainly to the fact that several drivers chose to push hard right from the start without giving too much thought to tyre management. As a consequence, some of them therefore suffered more than expected with graining and were forced to make their first pit stop earlier than planned, which triggered a chain reaction which bit by bit pushed everyone towards a two-stop, especially as they knew they could count on two sets of Hard tyres, which was without a doubt the most competitive compound for the race.
“On average, the level of performance degradation was relatively low on both the Medium and the Hard, and so too was wear. Clearly some drivers suffered with degradation more than others, especially on the C4, but a one-stop was still doable if the tyres were managed carefully. The result was an action-packed Grand Prix with plenty of overtaking and wheel-to-wheel battles which was great for all the fans of this wonderful sport.”
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