The neon signs were flashin’, and we presume the one-arm bandits crashin’ unlike the drivers themselves, with Max Verstappen winning the big jackpot of a fourth driver’s World Championship, and George Russell dominating the race with a win for Mercedes. Talking of a fortune won and lost on every deal, our 2024 Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix Result Summary defines is the winning choice for race reviews and views.
This 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings which gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
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Latest 2024 F1 Driver Rankings – from Brazilian GP
2024 Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – Qualifying is closer than ever, and it could have been anyone of the top four cars that could have taken pole. Sergio Perez excluded of course, who duly delivered another Q1 exit. George Russell was the star and took pole, while his team mate struggled in Q3 despite looking quick prior. The Ferraris were quick and qualified 2nd and 4th, but were split by another outstanding effort from Pierre Gasly in the Alpine. Championship rivals fifth and sixth with Verstappen ahead of Norris. If it stays that way, Max Verstappen will be a World Champion for a fourth time in a row. Another World Champion – Fernando Alonso is starting on soft tyres for some midfield interest. Franco Colapinto starts from pitlane after binning his car into the wall massively in Qualifying.
GRID (Starting Order) – RUS SAI GAS LEC VER NOR TSU PIA HUL HAM
Lap 1 – George Russell takes off well and keeps his first place through the first corners. Charles Leclerc sneaks by Pierre Gasly to take third and then his team mate to steal second as well. All the drivers behave themselves through the first lap with Liam Lawson and Kevin Magnussen putting on a show of good racing in the midfield. If possible things do get worse for Sergio Perez who drops a place to 16th. Oscar Piastri also loses 8th to Nico Hulkenberg.
ORDER – RUS LEC SAI GAS VER NOR TSU PIA HUL HAM
Lap 3 – Charles Leclerc sets fastest lap to give George Russell a warning up front that he is rapid on the streets of any circuit. He closes the gap to six tenths of a second in the process. Further behind, Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and more may regret Pierre Gasly’s super effort in qualifying as he is already two seconds behind third placed Sainz and holding the cars behind up.
Lap 4 – Verstappen passes Gasly for fourth to make the previous sentence look like a folly. That’s a car gap to his Championship rival now.
Lap 5 – Leclerc pulls alongside George Russell and has a decent look around the outside of turn one. He briefly edges in front but Russell holds firm and keeps first. For now. Further back Oscar Piastri has a notice from the stewards that a False Start has been noted. A penalty awaits the McLaren driver.
Lap 8 – Something has gone amiss with Charles Leclerc. He has fallen behind Carlos Sainz and on lap 8 was overtaken by Max Verstappen. The TV men are saying worn tyres is the issue, which is pretty early but he was pushing George Russell hard. But it’s too early to stop surely. But how far will he drop in the process? Talking of dropping, Oscar Piastri is overtaken by Lewis Hamilton for 9th.
Lap 10 – Lewis Hamilton passes Yuki Tsunoda for 7th. Meanwhile heavy hitters Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris pit for new tyres. At least Norris got ahead of Gasly before pitting. They resume in 16th and 17th. Climbing up the field is Max Verstappen who passes Carlos Sainz for second down the long, neon-lit straight. Perhaps downcast from that move, Ferrari pit Carlos Sainz. Lewis Hamilton also gains another place. Oscar Piastri has a five second penalty applied for a false start and he celebrates by pitting and taking the five second penalty there and then.
ORDER – RUS VER HAM HUL OCO ZHO PER LAW MAG BOT – All no pit stops.
Lap 12 – Max Verstappen pits for tyres from second and rejoins in a bunch of cars. But is at least ahead of the Ferraris and Lando Norris. The faster cars waste not much time getting past the backmarkers, with moves a-plenty.
Lap 13 – George Russell pits, leaving his team mate to lead the race, which is nice for him. Replays show Yuki Tsunoda running over a safety sign in the pitlane as he exited, which we guess in kind of ironic. Not like rain on wedding days, but still. Hamilton pits too, sliding back through the field. He wasn’t happy with the pit call either. More Mercedes sabotaging.
ORDER – RUS PER HUL VER SAI LEC MAG NOR HAM BOT
Lap 16 – Sad times for Pierre Gasly whose is losing positions as his engine appears to lose power. He complains to his team who tells him nothing is wrong. The plume of smoke disagrees and Gasly pits to retire at the end of the lap. Stil la great qualifying though.
Lap 17 – Lewis Hamilton overtakes Lando Norris and showing some of the speed that he promised in early qualifying. The pass makes it even harder for Norris to stop Verstappen winning the Championship at this race.
Lap 18 – Sergio Perez drops a few places on track as his tyres degrade, and he pits. Unlikely to be heard from again in this report. Unless he crashes. Which is always possible.
ORDER – RUS VER SAI LEC HAM NOR TSU PIA ALO ALB
Lap 20 – Lewis Hamilton at this stage is the fastest driver on track and is closing right up on Charles Leclerc for fourth. Meanwhile Max Verstappen is 9.6 second behind the other Mercedes in the lead.
Lap 24 – That lead squeaks out to over 10 seconds as George Russell continues to control the race. Lewis Hamilton continues to harass Leclerc for fourth. That Mercedes will have to stop again, so there might be some entertaining racing later in the race.
Lap 25 – Sergio Perez passes Liam Lawson for 12th. That’s the highlight of the past five laps or so. And possibly the highlight of Perez’s season in the past few months.
Lap 26 – Oscar Piastri pits for a second set of tyres, he drops from 8th to 15th. It will probably start a rush for new tyres.
Lap 28 – Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton pit for tyres. Ferrari appear to call one of their cars in and then un-call it. The result is Carlos Sainz crossing the line for the pitlane when he shouldn’t, which may lead to a penalty, so that call change could prove more costly than bad strategy too. Sainz pits a lap later for tyres. Sainz rightly asks what happened and his team reply with they weren’t ready. A slice of yesteryear from Ferrari with hopeless strategy calls.
ORDER – RUS LEC NOR VER HAM SAI TSU HUL PER ZHO
Lap 32 – Lewis Hamilton passes Max Verstappen with more ease than most of the previous seasons. Max Verstappen can smell that Championship. Oh, and Charles Leclerc pits from second, for a third helping of tyres. As does George Russell a lap later from the lead, which he keeps. But it’s now his rapid looking team mate in second now, so maybe a race after all.
ORDER – RUS HAM VER SAI LEC HUL NOR PER ZHO PIA
Lap 36 – All the pit stops are done and dusted now, so it is a straight sprint to the end. The big story for the race will be if Lewis Hamilton can catch George Russell for the lead. And if Max Verstappen can cruise to the World Championship. And to a lesser degree the final points positions looks a tasty battle.
ORDER – RUS HAM VER SAI LEC NOR PIA TSU HUL OCO
Lap 38 – Overtaking move of the race from Sergio Perez as he overtakes two cars at once going into the tight corners at the end of The Strip. Outstanding stuff from the Mexican. He’s up to 12th.
Lap 39 – Max Verstappen is struggling on his tyres as the Ferraris close and Hamilton and Leclerc trade fastest laps. Hamilton is closing on Russell, and the stats say he will be within striking distance on the lap after the race finishes. Which won’t count if he gets past. Red Bull tell Verstappen to keep the Ferraris behind for now. He only has to finish ahead of Norris to wrap up the title.
Lap 42 – Carlos Sainz takes third from Max Verstappen. Charles Leclerc closes in on a pass of the Red Bull as well.
Lap 45 – Lewis Hamilton has the gap to George Russell to under five seconds with five laps to go. He’s not going quick enough to haul in that gap, but he could apply enough pressure for force a Russell mistake. Further back, Nico Hulkenberg passes Yuki Tsunoda for 8th.
Lap 46 – Sergio Perez is up to 10th with another fine overtaking move. Missed whenever he moved up to 11th, but maybe he should be higher and we’ll pay more attention.
Lap 47 – Charles Leclerc passes Max Verstappen for fourth, who probably doesn’t care as he will still win the Championship.
Lap 48 – Lewis Hamilton runs wide at a corner, losing time and calling off any chance of a battle for first. Still, second is a decent haul after starting 10th on the grid. Lando Norris is called into the pits, most likely to set a fastest lap. Possibly the most consolation prize of the season.
FINAL LAP – George Russell cruises to a win, and well deserved as he dominated. Max Verstappen equally cruises home for fifth for the Driver’s Championship win. Other drivers did stuff, but none of it is more important than winning a title or a race. Not even fastest lap.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – RUS HAM SAI LEC VER NOR PIA HUL TSU PER
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Can’t beat winning a World Championship, and Max Verstappen has done it for a fourth time. And this season it was quite the challenge. Verstappen has fought back in the second half of the season where his car hasn’t been the best or second best, in some of the recent races.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
GEORGE RUSSELL – Supremely quick for most of the weekend, took pole and led most of the laps in a dominant performance. All while keeping his illustrious team mate in the shade.
PIERRE GASLY – He may have blown his engine to the surprise of his team, but his third in qualifying was magnificent and continues a real surge in performance in the second half of the season. No reward today, but reputation enhanced regardless.
LEWIS HAMILTON – Looked fast over the weekend and disappointed with 10th in qualifying. Fought back magnificently in the race, showing that the pace is still there when Mercedes and Hamilton aren’t sabotaging each other.
THE GRAPE-EST – SERGIO PEREZ
What more does a driver have to do to be fired? Especially driving a Red Bull. A Q1 exit and lacklustre race is something we could pre-write for nearly every Grand Prix weekend for the past five months for Perez. Has cost Red Bull the constructors and surely won’t be around in 2025. And an outside chance of resting for the final two races. His point was actually well earned, but still. We shouldn’t be celebrating 10th place in a Red Bull.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
OSCAR PIASTRI – A disappointing Grand Prix, in a period where he has gone off the boil just a bit. Sprint Race performance in Brazil aside. False Starts don’t help, and neither did a McLaren whose pace disappeared in Q3 on the Saturday/Friday night. Lando Norris had a slightly better weekend, but a bad one for McLaren overall.
FRANCO COLAPINTO – Nothing worse with all the Red Bull/alpine speculation for a 2025 drive then to put the car into the wall in qualifying. Especially for the William team who were rumoured to considering skipping Las Vegas as they were allegedly struggling to rebuild the cars from multiple crashes across multiple weekends.
FERRARI – Usually the street kings, and they did appear quick on many occasions. But beaten to pole by George Russell and then trumped in the race by Max Verstappen. The strategy call for Sainz’s second stop summed up their nearly good enough race, despite a good haul of points. A real missed opportunity for the team championship with McLaren struggling in the race.
LIAM LAWSON – Been aggressive on track and vocal off it since returning, so a 16th place finish ahead of only Ocon and Bottas isn’t backing the bravado up. No one really wants that Red Bull drive do they?
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
ON TRACK ACTION – 6 / 10
The drivers behaved themselves enough/too much on the first lap and early part, so early action was limited. But as the race wore on, and the tyres did the same quickly, it became interesting indeed. Passes on track, passes due to strategy. Enough to keep one entertained.
ANY SURPRISES? – 3 / 5
Pierre Gasly’s qualifying pace and George Russell / Mercedes dominant pace is quite surprising.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 5
It doesn’t get much more important than someone winning a World Championship.
ENDING 5 / 10
A little bit of tension to where Max Verstappen would finish, and Lewis Hamilton’s pursuit of first was of mild interest. As was the battle for 8th, 9th, 10th. But overall, it’s a solid five rating.
OVERALL RATING 19 / 30
A race of consequence for Championships, and interesting enough throughout with enough on track action.
2024 F1 Race Rankings
R21 – Brazilian Grand Prix.…23/30
R20 – Mexican Grand Prix….24/30
R19 – US Grand Prix….23/30
R18 – Singapore Grand Prix…10/30
R17 – Azerbaijan Grand Prix…25/30
R16 – Italian Grand Prix…21/30
R15 – Dutch Grand Prix…15/30
R14 – Belgian Grand Prix…23/30
R13 – Hungarian Grand Prix…19/30
R12 – British Grand Prix…25/30
R11 – Austrian Grand Prix…27/30
R10 – Spanish Grand Prix…19/30
R09 – Canadian Grand Prix…22/30
R08 – Monaco Grand Prix…17/30
R07 – Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix…23/30
R06 – Miami Grand Prix…23/30
R05 – Chinese Grand Prix…15/30
R04 – Japanese Grand Prix…18/30
R03 – Australian Grand Prix…23/30
R02 – Saudi Arabia Grand Prix…9/30
R01 – Bahrain Grand Prix…13/30
2024 F1 Season Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
Why not check the latest race ratings – 2024 Singapore Grand Prix Ratings
Or our 2024 F1 Half Season Report.
Or check out our 2023 Season Driver Rankings and Stats
