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F1 to 10: What really happened at the Las Vegas Grand Prix
A double podium for Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez saw Oracle Red Bull Racing’s drivers achieve a 1-2 in the standings for the first time, Verstappen’s 18th win of the year securing a US clean sweep.
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1. Las Vegas in exactly 74 words*
Oracle Red Bull Racing sealed a 1-2 finish in the Formula One drivers’ championship for the first time, Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez finishing first and third in the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix. The team’s ninth double-podium result this season cemented Pérez’s runner-up position in the standings, while the victory was the team’s 20th in 21 Grands Prix in 2023, setting a record for wins by one team in a single F1 campaign.
* 2023 is the 74th season of the F1 world championship
2. The Las Vegas GP in six pics
It was far from easy, but Verstappen enjoyed a familiar post-race feeling
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen was penalised after he and Leclerc ran wide at the start
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Pérez fought like a lion against Leclerc, but just missed out on second
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
When in Vegas, you race in... Elvis-inspired race suits
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
3. Double podium cements new goal
That's three US races, three wins for Max in 2023
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen’s victory was his sixth in succession and 18th in 21 races this year, but this was no stroll down The Strip, nor any of the other corners that made up the breathtakingly-audacious track that took in the sights of one of the world’s most famous skylines.
The drama started from lap one, when the Dutchman slithered into the run-off area along with pole-sitter Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) soon after the lights went out, the stewards assessing Verstappen had left the track and gained an advantage and hitting him with a five-second time penalty. He served that at his first pit stop on Lap 16, but not before Leclerc had re-taken the lead on that same lap.
Later on, Verstappen tangled with a seemingly unsighted George Russell (Mercedes) at Turn 12 on Lap 25, breaking parts of his RB19’s front wing in an incident that saw the Mercedes driver hit with his own five-second penalty. A safety car to clear debris from the track allowed him to take new tires to the end of the race, and Verstappen unleashed from fifth when racing resumed.
He passed Leclerc for the lead – again – on Lap 37, and checked out from there to win by a tick over two seconds, ensuring a full house of all three races on US soil (Miami, Austin and Vegas) this season.
Pérez came into the weekend with a 32-point lead over Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) for second in the standings, needing to leave Vegas with a 26-point advantage to ensure the team had its drivers finish 1-2 in a season for the first time despite taking seven drivers’ titles in its 19-year history.
Starting from 11th on the grid after a tactical gamble in qualifying went awry, the Mexican’s race looked as good as over when he was caught up in the first-corner melee sparked by a spinning Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), pitting after just one lap for a new front wing and with a mountain of work to do.
Prodigious pace when he returned to the track, plus some fortuitously-timed safety car interventions, had Pérez in the lead on Lap 32, but he dropped behind Leclerc and then Verstappen. He retook second place over Leclerc with eight laps left, but the Ferrari repassed him with four corners to go and held on by two-tenths of a second.
The RB19s raced by Verstappen and Pérez in Las Vegas sported a one-off livery as part of the team’s ‘Make Your Mark’ campaign. Members of The Paddock, Oracle Red Bull Racing’s free loyalty program, were challenged to come up with a special livery for each of the sport’s three races in the US this year; the purple paintjob for Vegas was designed by Lindsay Palmer, from Essex in the UK, who spent the weekend trackside with the team.
4. No grip, no joy for AlphaTauri
Top-10 pace remained out of reach for Ricciardo all weekend
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
The good times came to a halt for Scuderia AlphaTauri in Vegas, a three-race run of points-scoring finishes snapped as Daniel Ricciardo slithered to 14th place while team-mate Yuki Tsunoda retired from the race.
Tire warm-up on a cold track – the race-night tarmac temperatures were only in the mid-teens – was AlphaTauri’s biggest challenge all weekend, with Ricciardo qualifying just 15th and a frustrated Tsunoda 20th, a lock-up on his final flying lap consigning him to an early Q1 exit.
Tsunoda started on the softest-compound Pirelli tires and ran as high as 10th in the early stages before eventually retiring with a gearbox gremlin with three laps left, while Ricciardo finished 14th.
The results didn’t cost AlphaTauri any ground in its fight for seventh in the constructors’ standings with Williams, the deficit to the British team staying at seven points after Alex Albon (12th) and Logan Sargeant (16th) failed to score.
5. The number you need to know
53: Verstappen’s 53rd F1 victory sees the three-time world champion match Red Bull Racing’s other multiple F1 champion, Sebastian Vettel, for third in the sport’s all-time record books.
More F1 to watch and read
6. The word from the paddock
“That was a tough one! I tried to go for it at the start but I ran out of grip and we ended up a bit wide, so the stewards gave me a penalty for that. I had to pass a lot of cars after that. It was a lot of fun, and you could really push on the tires.”
7. The stats that matter
Drivers' Championship top 5
Position
Driver
Team
Points
Gap
1
Max Verstappen
Oracle Red Bull Racing
549
-
2
Sergio Pérez
Oracle Red Bull Racing
273
-276
3
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
232
-317
4
Carlos Sainz
Ferrari
200
-349
5
Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin
200
-349
Constructors' Championship top 5
Position
Team
Points
Gap
1
Oracle Red Bull Racing
822
-
2
Mercedes
392
-430
3
Ferrari
388
-434
4
McLaren
284
-538
5
Aston Martin
273
-549
8. Away from the track
It was a race before THE race in Vegas – one between Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez, Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo in the Nevada desert south of Sin City. In high-powered, out-of-this-world racing hovercrafts, naturally …
The latest episode of the (Un)serious Race Series pitted the Oracle Red Bull Racing pilots and their Scuderia AlphaTauri stablemates in three space-inspired challenges in scenery befitting a sci-movie, complete with crashed UFO lodged in the dry lake bed. A friendly contest? Sure. But F1 drivers want to win at anything, so things got a little competitive – watch what went on below.
8 min
F1 drivers vs hovercraft
Watch F1 drivers go head-to-head in sci-fi hovercraft racing, deep in the desert outside Las Vegas.
9. Where to next, and what do I need to know?
Round 22 (Abu Dhabi), November 24-26
Circuit name/location: Yas Marina Circuit, Yas Island
Length/laps: 5.281km, 58 laps
Grands Prix held/debut: 14, 2009
Most successful driver: Lewis Hamilton (five wins)
Most successful team: Mercedes (six wins)
2022 podium: 1st: Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing), 2nd: Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 3rd: Sergio Pérez (Red Bull Racing)
10. Inside the wide world of Red Bull Motorsports
F1 Sim Racing World Championship driver line-up
© Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing
New season, new faces; that’s the equation for Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing for the upcoming 2023-24 season in the F1 Sim Racing World Championship, with the team looking to go one better than last year’s hard-fought second-place finish this time around.
Josh Idowu, Frede Rasmussen and Sebastian Job combine to create a formidable line-up for the team – here’s where you can find out more about their hopes for the season ahead, plus where and how to follow the championship from Event 1 and a race of the Bahrain International Circuit on November 24.
Download the free Red Bull TV app and watch unmissable F1 action on all your devices!
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