Picture Credit: X
Las Vegas became a special day for Mercedes, a redemption day for Carlos Sainz who had endured a tough day here the last time around and ultimately, a moment to savour for none other than Max Verstappen of Red Bull.
Under bright and sparkling lights, Russell emerged triumphant in taking a much deserving win alongside teammate Lewis Hamilton in second on a day that brought boundless smiles and relief, as one might note, to the Red Bull camp.
So which key moments stood out and defined the GP as one of the best?
Emphatic day for Mercedes
They say, victory belongs to the one who persists. George Russell had his heart in his mouth when despite doing all the rigours and hardwork, he found himself disqualified from the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix. This is when he led several laps, drove a clean and error free race only to find his Mercedes machine was found to have breached the legal weight requirement. The F1 official website had shared:
The report said that while the car had initially been found to be compliant with the minimum weight of 798kg, 2.8 litres of fuel was then removed.
“The car was not fully drained according to the draining procedure submitted by the team in their legality documents as TR Article 6.5.2 is fulfilled.
But on this particular occasion, there was nothing erroneous, neither on the part of Russell, nor on the part of his brilliant Mercedes team who collected no fewer than 43 points with George Russell completing his first win at the Las Vegas street circuit and his third overall career win.
That two of his wins have come in 2024 itself means it’s been a fantastic year for the bright young man from King’s Lynn, whose best days certainly rest in the future. This means, Russell’s going to display even bigger resolve and more exceptional performances of the kinds he just demonstrated at Vegas in the course of the future.
Hamilton demonstrates smashing form
Lewis Hamilton, a seven time world champion and a tireless F1 hero, did exactly as we at SportsTiger predicted in our Saturday coloumn for Las Vegas GP predictions, brought to you by Stake.
He jumped up several positions while demonstrating supreme race craft to claim his maiden Vegas podium. A fighting second that was punctuated by brilliant overtaking and great tyre management, typical of the great Briton saw the 2020 world champion with a mega drive for his Mercedes team. In taking a second, Hamilton completed yet another podium position; his third of the ongoing season. Previously, Lewis stood first at the Belgian Grand Prix, a position he had inherited after Russell was disqualified altogether at the end of the action at Spa-Francorchamps in lines with a weight infringement of the Mercedes machine. But this time around, there was no inheritance for his P2: it was pure high-class driving.
Glory belongs to Max Verstappen, now a four-time world champion
Max Verstappen entered the race weekend here at Las Vegas with a 62-point lead over Lando Norris, his closest championship rival. In the end, he’s weakened his doubters and his on track adversaries in emerging victories with a fourth career world title by demonstrating a hard-fought and focused drive that saw him grab a vital fourth.
He had already jumped back to form courtesy a mega drive at Brazil and as seen a few hours ago, presided over a closely contested 50-lap battle that was bellied by overtakes aplenty. And though Verstappen
fought off the Ferraris and the rest of the teams valiantly, in the end, he found himself shy on straight line speed especially when compared to the two blitzing red machines.
His fight with Carlos Sainz was epic and the Dutchman was also helped handily by his Mexican teammate who by moving away in the middle stages of the contest, allowed the 2024 world champion to move into the podium places.
In the end, the victory belonged to Mercedes but Max emerged a deserving world title winner having picked no fewer than eight race wins this season. This included that sensational win at Interlagos, the home of the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Smooth operator with another smooth job
Carlos Sainz might have had a poor start to his 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix in which he fell from second on the grid to third all thanks to a slow getaway where he went wide in the approach to turn 1, this allowing Leclerc, in an almost rocket ship-like manner, to jump ahead. But in the end, Sainz did all the hardwork to come good and grabbed a fighting third behind a compelling Mercedes 1-2 show.
Throughout the race, Sainz demonstrated great race craft and never seemed under pressure despite battling his own teammate in the initial stages of the Grand Prix.
He would stay focused, and kept pushing the throttle to inch ahead and as seen in the closing stages, completed some great racing moves on the likes of even the great Max Verstappen to launch his Ferrari ahead toward the pointed end of the grid
