Max Verstappen, starting second, won the Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix on a cool, windy night on a slick (in more ways than one) Las Vegas circuit. It was Verstappen’s 18th win of the year and sixth consecutive, after a ten-win streak earlier in the year.
Verstappen crossed the line two seconds ahead of pole-sitter Charles Leclerc, who snatched second from Sergio Perez on the final lap. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon followed Perez in fourth, with Lance Stroll taking fifth, while Carlos Sainz overcame a ten-place grid penalty to salvage sixth. The Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell placed seventh and eight, respectively, and Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri closed out the points-paying positions.
“It was a tough one,” Verstappen said. “I tried to go for it at the start. We (himself and Leclerc) both braked quite late, and I just ran out of grip, so we ended up a bit wide.
“The stewards gave me a penalty for that and it put us on the backfoot. I had to pass quite a few cars, and there was the Safety Car, so at that point, there was a lot going on.
“Then we went flat out. I had to pass a few cars to get into the battle with them. The DRS around here was very powerful. Even when you would take the lead, if the guy behind stays in the DRS, he would still have the opportunity to come back to you, so it created a lot of good racing today. Definitely a lot of fun.”
In the driver standings, Verstappen has 549 points, with Perez way back but clinching second with 273, and followed by Hamilton 41 back at 232.
In the constructor standings, Red Bull’s whopping 822 total leads Mercedes with 392, while Ferrari closed the gap to second to only four points at 388.
The Race
Verstappen zoomed off the line at lights out and overtook Leclerc into Turn 1, running the Ferrari wide. Alonso spun and suffered damage as Hamilton and Sainz made contact behind him. Perez rear-ended Bottas, forcing the Red Bull to pit for a new wing. A virtual safety car was issued to clean up debris from the incident. Leclerc lobbied for Verstappen to give the position back, and stewards reviewed the overtake and soon released their findings: a five-second penalty for Verstappen.
Green flag racing resumed on lap 3, amazingly with two Williams and two Haas cars in the top 10. Moments later, Norris locked up the brakes into Turn 1 and crashed hard into the barriers. A safety car was deployed, with several drivers,…
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