Las Vegas Grand Prix: Teams & Drivers Report from the Strip

While the McLaren of Lando Norris qualified on pole position for the 50-lap event, he made a mistake and ran wide at the very first corner, ceding the lead of the Grand Prix to Verstappen there and then. Norris lost a further position to Russell on the opening lap.

Russell piled the pressure on Verstappen early on, before tyre degradation reared its ugly head for the Mercedes driver and he fell back. By lap 34, Norris had caught and passed Russell for P2, but didn't have sufficient pace to close the deficit to Verstappen who held a commanding advantage at the head of the field.

With a few laps remaining, Norris was asked by his race engineer to slow down with suspected issues, allowing Russell to close in within a few seconds at the line and for Verstappen to take victory by over 20 seconds.

Meanwhile, Andrea Kimi Antonelli defended well from Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc to cross the line in fourth, but a five-second penalty for a false start demoted the Italian to fifth.

With that, Norris extended his lead in the Drivers' Championship to 30 points over Piastri, and 42 points over Verstappen.

Or so we thought. Both McLaren cars were subsequently disqualified for excessive plank wear, and therefore scored no points at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. This now means Norris' advantage is only 24 points over both Piastri and Verstappen. The Championship fight is still very much alive.

This is what the teams and drivers said after Formula 1's final day of running in Las Vegas.

Lando Norris: "A frustrating end to today. We had to do some managing towards the end of the race and now we know it was due to some issues on our car, which have unfortunately resulted in us being disqualified. It’s frustrating to lose so many points. As a team, we’re always pushing to find as much performance as we can, and we clearly didn’t get that balance right today. Nothing I can do will change that now, instead full focus switches to Qatar, where we'll aim to go out and deliver the best possible performance in every session."

Oscar Piastri: "Disappointing to come away from this weekend with no points after an unfortunate disqualification due to skid wear. With how close the grid is, we’re always looking at where we can gain performance, and we didn’t get it right this time. We now need to reset, refocus and push to get the best points possible in the final two rounds, both tracks that we've been strong at previously."

Andrea Stella: "Following the Las Vegas Grand Prix, we were found in breach of Article 3.5.9 of the Technical Regulations, which requires a minimum of 9mm skid thickness. Car 4 was found in breach by a maximum of 0.12mm of the rearmost skid and Car 81 by a maximum of 0.26mm of the rearmost skid.

"During the race, both cars experienced unexpected, high levels of porpoising not seen in the Practice sessions, which led to excessive contact with the ground. We are investigating the reasons for this behaviour of the car, including the effect of accidental damage sustained by both cars, which we found after the race, and that led to an increase of movement of the floor.

"As the FIA noted, the breach was unintentional, there was no deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations, and mitigating circumstances also existed.

"We apologise to Lando and Oscar for the loss of points today, at a critical time in their Championship campaigns after two strong performances from them all weekend. As a team, we also apologise to our partners and fans, whose support means so much.

"While this outcome is extremely disappointing, we remain fully focused on the last two races of the season."

Max Verstappen: "Everything went really smooth today and we did well to keep the tyres alive. It was great to get the win here and we had a very good day. The last few laps were very strong, we made no mistakes and had good communication with the pit wall throughout. Our start was really good and Lando was a bit late on the brakes. It was important to get ahead as we were able to then do our own thing and stay really consistent. During the race, the Mediums felt better than expected and we did a decent stint first which made things easier when we got on to the Hard compound. It was a good race for us, we had good pace and everything worked really well. For the next few races we just need to do the best we can and keep trying to win as many races until the end of the year and maximise everything we can. I had fun out there today."

Yuki Tsunoda: "Things didn’t go the way we would have liked today and I think I would have been in a lot higher a place without the tyre pressure issue we had in Qualifying. What happened in Qualifying was a mistake, it’s something that was out of my control but it is very frustrating because until then I was having a good weekend. I lost the opportunity to have a good race with something that is relatively easy to avoid but we will learn from it as a Team. If the timing of the VSC on lap two had worked out we could have employed a very successful strategy today, but in the end it was just unfortunate, because just before that I had pitted. Everything feels like it is going against me lately and weekends aren’t going as we planned. The changes we made to the car overnight didn’t impact the pace as much as we had wanted either. A lot of things are happening out of my control lately, but I can only control what I can control. The pace is getting there for me and I am feeling more comfortable and confident with the car. I will just keep doing what I am doing."

Laurent Mekies, CEO and Team Principal: "Everyone in the Team and back in Milton Keynes can be proud. The car was fast at a track where we struggled a bit last year and this weekend no one had time to properly prepare because Thursday's practice was somewhat disturbed, as was FP3. The car was fast, our tyre management was up to the job and our execution was very strong. When Max needed to push, he did and was able to bring more to the table. This is a race like no other with the low temperatures and the track layout and tonight, Max and the Team mastered it. As for the start, Max is unbeatable when it comes to this sort of move, so we are no longer surprised! But there were a few critical moments in the race, when George pitted while we and Lando stayed out, but everyone managed it to perfection. As for Yuki, we paid the price for what happened yesterday. Today, we made it, a win is a win, so now we will reset and look ahead to Qatar with the same objective of extracting everything from our package."

Charles Leclerc: "Mixed feelings on my side. I am not satisfied finishing P6, but if I look back at my race, I didn’t leave anything on the table, I had some good battles and took the right risks, so on a personal note, I am satisfied with my performance today.The first stint was entertaining with good overtakes, working my way forward, but after our stop, it became more difficult. Our straight-line speed was not the strongest, so it was difficult to fight with our competitors. I made up for it a bit with how I was braking, but with Oscar (Piastri) in Kimi’s (Antonelli) DRS, it was difficult to catch them to try and gain more places.We have two more races to go and we want to close the season on a high, bringing home a win for everyone in our team. I will give it everything."

Lewis Hamilton: "It was a tough evening, definitely not one I’ll look back on fondly. We got off to a strong start and I was able to make up a good number of places in the first stint. The contact with Albon in the second stint caused some damage, which affected the pace and made it harder to close in on Hülkenberg.On the upside, we still managed to get back into the points, and every point matters for the Constructors’. Big thanks to the fans who showed up in such huge numbers despite the really cold weather."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal: "Lewis had a great start from P20, recovering very well. It’s true that none of us really knew what to expect from the tyres and we were surprised to see Antonelli able to do 48 laps with the Hard when some other cars were struggling. The difference was that Kimi was always in clean air, whereas if you follow someone, it damages the tyres and has a huge impact on your race. So we recovered well, but it was not enough. We had good pace today, but Charles’ aero choice meant it was very difficult for him to overtake. It’s true he was pushing “like an animal” as he said on the radio. When the others began to struggle on tyres he was able to overtake, but later it became difficult. Now there are still two races to go and our target is still to try and win a race before the end of the season."

Carlos Sainz: "We need to be happy with P7 today, as I think we did a good job and executed the race well. We were maybe slightly conservative with our pit stops and could’ve made Leclerc and Piastri fight for the positions on track, but these are all good learnings. At the end of the day, we had good pace, similar to the top teams, and we were the fastest car out of the midfield, so we’ll take the points and continue to push in the remaining two races. We’ll do our best to keep this momentum and hold onto P5 in the Championship!"

Alex Albon: "It was a messy race today, so it’s very disappointing to come away with no points from this weekend. We didn’t have radio communication at any point in the race, so we had to go old-school with using pit boards for all comms which compromised our race from the start. We sustained damage at the beginning of the race but due to the lack of radio, it was a big risk to not know if the car was safe to drive or have any information on flags, safety cars, or debris. It’s an opportunity missed this weekend when we’ve had strong pace on this track. Ultimately, it wasn’t our day, but that’s racing."

James Vowles, Team Principal: "Well done to Carlos, P7 was where the car was today pace-wise and he got everything out of it. Clean execution and great to see the gap that we were able to pull to the rest of the midfield. With Alex, a very difficult race for him. The radio failed on the laps to the grid and despite numerous efforts we were not able to reinstate it which meant we had no communication with him. After he got caught up in incidents, we decided the best course of action was to retire the car rather than risk any safety issues. We have got two races to go, a slight build in the points gap for fifth in the Championship and we need to keep doing that."

Isack Hadjar: “I’m happy about our race today as I feel like we extracted everything we could. We were going into the unknown a little bit as we hadn’t had any long runs in practice. We were probably a bit too conservative on the tyre management as we were expecting more graining before the start, when in the end it was a full push race. I’m proud of the team for the job we’ve done here in Vegas, and I think it's been our best weekend of the year. We didn't make any mistakes from FP1 and ticked all the boxes we had to, so it’s nice to be rewarded with four points. I’m now confident going into the last two races of the year in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, which are tracks that I think will suit our car better.”

Liam Lawson: “I'm disappointed for the team today as the car has been fast this weekend. It was extremely slippery into Turn 1 and once I committed to brake, the cars in front started checking up and I didn't have anywhere to go. We should have had two cars in the points today, so it's a shame given where we started. That being said, we'll of course take the positives from the speed of the car into Qatar.”

Alan Permane, Team Principal: “A strong weekend for us. Isack drove a great race and didn’t put a foot wrong, bringing home four very valuable points for the Constructor’s Championship. Whilst we didn’t have the pace to challenge those in front, it was a case of looking after the tyres, ensuring we didn’t hit any graining at the front, and keeping a sensible gap to Hulkenberg behind. Liam unfortunately reacted to Russell locking up in front of him and clipped Piastri, which resulted in him having to come in for a front wing change. In a straightforward, one-stop race like that, it’s difficult to make positions up from the back. Nevertheless, we prove again we’ve got a fast car, with fast drivers and we look forward to the Sprint weekend in Qatar next weekend.”

Fernando Alonso: "It was a tough race for us as we didn't have the pace out there.

"With dry conditions tonight we knew it would be difficult to score any points. We also lacked top speed on the straights, so it wasn’t easy to battle or defend.

"We all tried our best though and we'll go again next week in Qatar and hopefully be able to fight for the points."

Lance Stroll: "Unfortunately I got hit at the start of the race and that was it for me in the first corner.

"That's racing, these things happen and it's not fun for either Gabriel or me but he didn't do it on purpose; he's a good kid.

"On paper we didn't expect to be too competitive tonight and don't think much would've been possible for us.

"Hopefully we will show some more competitiveness next weekend. At some tracks the car comes alive and hopefully Qatar will be one of them."

Andy Cowell, Team Principal: "A difficult evening in Las Vegas, starting on lap one when Lance was taken out of the race by Bortoleto.

"There was significant damage to Lance's car and he had to retire. Fernando also had a painful opening lap, picking up front wing damage which cost him track position and performance for the rest of the race.

"Thereafter, we executed a single-stop race, making the undercut work on Bearman, but missed the pace to hold him off during the second stint.

"It's onwards now to Qatar next week where we will hope to be more competitive."

Ollie Bearman: “The opening lap was very good and we were up to a really good spot. Unfortunately, after that, we were struggling a little bit with pace and I couldn’t really find a rhythm in the car. It was very difficult to drive in the low-speed corners, and although it did get better on the hard compound, I didn’t change the aero balance which I would’ve normally if I had gotten a good read. I was struggling to keep cars behind in the first stint and was making mistakes because the car was difficult. Ultimately, I think the pace was okay, but we also had some graining on the final stint.”

Esteban Ocon: “I think there were a lot of positives today. We executed the race well but there wasn’t quite enough pace for us to get into the points. We were fighting with Lewis (Hamilton) the whole race really, and I thought what if I did keep him behind more in the first stint, but I was much quicker in the second. It just wasn’t enough to get close in the end, probably five more laps were needed. It was unfortunate as it feels like it’s been a weekend that hasn’t rewarded us, even though there were a lot of positives, but on to the next one.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: “Obviously, with the lack of running in FP2 and a wet qualifying session, it was a very tricky race to read in terms of tire degradation, but I think we reacted pretty well. We executed a one-stop strategy, and ultimately, it was our qualifying position – not getting everything out of it in Q2 – and a slight lack of pace that meant we finished just outside of the points. It’s disappointing, but if we can finish P11 and P12 in a less competitive race, that gives us good motivation for the next two. I’d like to think we’ll be more competitive, will qualify better, and have some strong races.”

Nico Hulkenberg: “Another couple of points on the board today, and I think we can be pretty satisfied with that – it was likely the maximum available. Everyone who finished ahead started ahead and probably had a bit more pace, so we executed well to bring it home where we did. It was a clean, solid one-stop strategy in a low-deg race with not too much variation, and the team did a great job.

“The first stint on the hard tyre was strong - managing it while racing closely in the early laps took some effort, but we pulled it off nicely. We gained two important points for the team, and while the fight in the standings is still very close, there’s everything to play for.”

Jonathan Wheatley: “Another mixed weekend for the team. We went into the race committed to a hard–medium one-stop strategy, with a clear backup plan in case graining became an issue. The track surface here is unique, so tyre behaviour was our main focus throughout the weekend. Unfortunately, Gabi misjudged his braking point in the first corner which resulted in an incident that both ended his race early and resulted in a five-place grid penalty for Qatar.

“On the other side of the garage, we saw another great performance from Nico which, for the second race in a row, resulted in a points finish. We leave Las Vegas with 64 points, getting a bit closer to our main competitors in the Constructors’ Championship with only two races left this season.”

Pierre Gasly: “Our race was over after a few hundred metres today and it is a pity we could not show our potential today. Gabriel [Bortoleto] was overly optimistic going into Turn 1. He crashed into Lance [Stroll] who then made contact with me and spun me around, breaking the back of my car and we had a lot of damage there. Not a good evening for us and I am sad for all the team as I have been feeling good in the car all weekend and it would have been interesting to see what we could have achieved. We have been fast in both the wet and the dry and I was excited to be in the mix where I am confident we could have challenged for the points today. Now our focus switches to Qatar where the conditions will be completely different to here. Two more races to go and we'll keep giving it our best to the very end.”

Franco Colapinto: “It wasn't the best outcome in today's race after contact from behind at the start meant we carried damage and lost downforce for the duration of the race. I had a relatively clean getaway and tried to avoid the chaos that happened in Turn 1 but I was hit from behind by Alex [Albon]. I felt small contact, but the floor and diffuser took a big hit. It's hard to say whether it was down to the damage we picked up, but the car felt much worse than in previous sessions. The balance was poor today and we lacked rear grip with the rear sliding a lot. It's a pity as you always want to give it your best shot but sometimes these things happen in racing that is out of your control. We need to quickly move on and look forward to finishing the season on a positive note at the final two races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.”

Flavio Briatore, Executive Advisor: “Today both our drivers, through no fault of their own, were caught up in a chaotic start to the race which resulted in significant damage to the rear of both cars. Pierre's race was completely ruined by an overambitious move by another driver in Turn 1 and he had a big loss of downforce as a result of the damage. Franco too suffered contact and damage which meant it was an uphill battle for the team for the whole race where we ended far from the points. While this circuit is a unique challenge with the conditions, we now head to Qatar, a track with many high-speed corners, which could suit our package better than recent events.”