F1 | 2023 Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix Result, Lap by Lap, Review & Summary

The most hyped F1 Grand Prix ever has been run and won, and F1 will never be the same again. Or hopefully F1 will improve. Despite trashing the event all weekend Max Verstappen provided the same old result, without the same old boredom though, in an action packed race. To cover all the hype and so much more is our 2023 Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix Result Summary which covers both races and anything else of interest.

This 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix Result, Lap by Lap, Review & Summary 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. And you get it for both the main race on Sunday and the Sprint Race on Saturday. So read on.

READ MORE:

2023 Brazil Grand Prix Preview
2023 Mexican Grand Prix Review
2023 Mexican Grand Prix Ratings and Driver of the Year
Our 2023 F1 Calendar & Results

2023 Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary

Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top 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 – After a disastrous opening day with no FP1 and an FP2 that started at 2:30am, an hour after they kicked all the fans out, the weekend improved with a relatively normal qualifying. Normal for a street circuit with a Ferrari on pole – this time being Charles Leclerc. Carlos Sainz would have been second if not for a disgraceful ten place penalty imposed to fix his car after a manhole cover ripped it apart. Pure F1 for some teams to be selfish enough not to allow some special circumstances. Max Verstappen starts from second, Williams cars are 5th and 6th with Alonso, Hamilton, Perez and Sainz just behind. Short run to a first corner hairpin with some of the cars hidden around the corner at the start. Chaos awaits.

GRID (Starting Order) –LEC VER RUS GAS ALB SAR BOT MAG ALO HAM

Lap 1 – Charles Leclerc gets off the line poorly and Max Verstappen gets the jump. He dives down the inside and takes the lead and takes Charles Leclerc wide, it briefly leaves a gap for George Russell but it closes. Debatable whether Max will hold onto that lead. Further back Fernando Alonso spins, Carlos Sainz spins, among other cars. Alonso looked to have gone up the inside and dropped it, which caused him to spin into Valtteri Bottas. Which also caused Sergio Perez to ram the Alfa Romeo up the rear, explaining his broken front wing. Safety Car is good for catching up on first lap happening.

ORDER – VER LEC RUS GAS ALB SAR MAG OCO STR PER

VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED

Marshalls need to clean up the pieces from the first corner clashes.

Sergio Perez pits for a new front wing, same with Fernando Alonso. 

Lap  3 – RACE RESUMES

First lap shenanigans have seen Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll gain 8 and 10 places on the first lap.

BIG CRASH – Lando Norris is into the wall at the end of The Strip. Looks like something broke on his car as he loses it before the curved braking zone and he flies in the runoff area backwards into the wall. He’s OK, but there’s a large dent in the safety barrier.

FULL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED

Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz pit for new tyres. Good news for Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso too.

ORDER – VER LEC RUS GAS ALB SAR OCO MAG HUL TSU

Lap  7 – RACE RESUMES

Oscar Piastri grabs 10th place in the only movement after the Safety Car buggers off. It’s a Spain-off at the back of the field with Alonso v Sainz battle coming up Ferrari for now.

Lap  8 – Five second penalty for Max Verstappen for his first lap pass on Charles Leclerc. Without annoying our many Dutch fans, it is fair probably enough. And surely the Red Bull team would complain too if reversed. Maybe it’s harsh and we’re just looking for something to slow down the Red Bulls. Piastri is up to 9th as well and is the highest driver on the hard tyres. Interesting.

Lap  10 – Piastri and Magnussen swap 8th place, but it’s the Aussie who looks best and fast in a car that looked awful in qualifying. He takes and keeps 8th by the end of the lap. Hamilton overtakes Hulkenberg and Magnussen a lap later. Sainz passes Alonso. Plenty happening, and especially for the drivers on hard tyres.

ORDER – VER LEC RUS GAS ALB SAR OCO PIA HAM MAG

Lap  13 – Carlos Sainz told to cool his car down or they may retire it. Maybe Ferrari could ask the FIA to help them out with cooling their car. Jerks. Sainz and Alonso overtake Daniel Ricciardo who ends up 16th.

Lap  15 – Feeling the breath of Hamilton on his neck, Piastri makes a successful, late lunge on Logan Sargeant for 7th. This is after the American had lost 6th place to the speedy Alpine of Esteban Ocon. The speedier Alpine of Pierre Gasly is 4th and looking quite strong. Gasly moves up the 3rd as the first of the front runners – George Russell – pits.

Lap  16 – All of a sudden Charles Leclerc is right on Max Verstappen’s tail, Max explains his tyres are shot, and his team tell him to pit. But before he can lose the place in the pitlane Leclerc overtakes him at the end of the Strip. Verstappen pits, with Albon, Piastri. Lewis Hamilton says he has a puncture, caused by a tap with Piastri. He doesn’t get to pit and has to crawl around to the pits. His race is over effectively, which will annoy a lot of celebrities.

Lap  18 – More cars pit, leaving Leclerc and Ocon at the front without stopping and the sneaky Sergio Perez stealthing his way to third and has stopped. He moves up to second a lap later when he passes Ocon.

ORDER – LEC PER OCO STR SAI ALO ZHO RUS VER GAS

Lap  20 – Guess we’ll see how good Max Verstappen is with him currently in 9th after his pit stop and his team mate, a pair of Ferraris and Aston Martins plus George Russell ahead. 

Lap  22 – Charles Leclerc pits from the lead and hands over to Sergio Perez, who has a solid eight second gap to Lance Stroll in second and Leclerc is another two seconds further back. Further back there’s a group of George Russell, Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen for 5th. Verstappen passes Alonso and closes on Russell. They are 13 second behind Perez in the lead. And have caught Carlos Sainz.

Lap  24 – Carlos Sainz loses two places in half a lap as Russell and Verstappen promote themselves to 4th and 5th. 

Lap  25 – Max Verstappen overtakes George Russell for 4th but there’s contact. Looks like the Red Bull front wing has been damaged. Verstappen claims Russell turned in on him. 50-50, Max looked far enough inside, but perhaps the lateness of the move surprised Russell. Either way Verstappen’s car is damaged.

Lap 26 – SAFETY CAR DELPOYED

The Safety Car is called upon to allow debris to be cleaned up, presumably from the previously mentioned clash, which gives those early pitting drivers another convenient stop. Perez is one, as is Carlos Sainz, but Charles Leclerc doesn’t and is first. Perez is second. It has certainly mixed up the order. Looks like Max Verstappen almost collided with Lance Stroll in the pit lane as they hurtled towards the exit. Busy few minutes. 

ORDER – LEC PER GAS PIA VER OCO STR ALB RUS SAI

Lap  29 – RACE RESUMES

George Russell gets a penalty for the clash with Max Verstappen. But later around the lap Max Verstappen is under investigation for an unsafe release – refer above near miss with Stroll.

A great move from Oscar Piastri on Pierre Gasly for the podium. Not a bad effort from 19th on the grid. One more Safety Car may hand the Australian a very unlikely podium. Max Verstappen is fifth in an Alpine Sandwich, which sounds like some wanker dessert on Masterchef.

Lap  31 – DRS is now enabled and should see a little more action and less conversation. Max Verstappen, who has had plenty to say about this Las Vegas Grand Prix this weekend, and none of it good, overtakes Gasly for fourth.

Lap  32 – Sergio Perez overtakes Charles Leclerc for the lead down the Strip. A race win is within reach if he can clear away from Max Verstappen in fourth and four-ish seconds behind. He makes that easier by passing Piastri for third.

Lap  34 – The Alpines race each other for 5th, with some nail-biting racing around the Vegas track. Ocon eventually takes it after an on-track swap meet.

ORDER – PER LEC VER PIA OCO GAS ALB STR RUS SAI

Lap  35 – Charles Leclerc overtakes Sergio Perez for the lead. How’s that, multiple lead changes and a Red Bull not in front. Woof. Max Verstappen doubles Perez’s misery a lap later with an easy overtake for second.

Lap  37  – Another lead change as Max Verstappen takes the lead off Charles Leclerc and knowing F1 in 2023 that will be the end of the fun.

Lap  40 – A quick dive into the midfield as Alex Albon loses multiple places in one slide in a corner. That’s Russell, Sainz, Alonso and Hamilton all scrapping over the crumbs of the top ten points.

ORDER – VER LEC PER PIA OCO GAS STR RUS SAI ALO

Lap  44 – Oscar Piastri pits for new tyres. His tyres must have been bad to throw away a fourth place. But maybe we will see one more piece of Pastry rising in the last few laps. He is 12th and just behind Albon, but that Williams is nine second behind 10th placed Hamilton. Seems a strange decision.

Lap  47 – Lewis Hamilton goes on a late race charge passing Gasly and Alonso to climb to 8th, which will become 7th when George Russell loses five seconds from a penalty.

Lap  48 – Charles Leclerc is closing on Sergio Perez to re-take his second place to give fans some late race action. But it might be too late. 

Last lap – Max Verstappen cruises, as he is so used to in 2023. Charles Leclerc chases Sergio Perez for second and nails him at the last possible corner to do so. Wonderfully late dive, and second race in a row Perez has lost a place on the last lap. Further behind George Russell ends up fourth on the road but has five seconds applied to his time. Oscar Piastri  takes 10th after his late pit stop.

FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – VER LEC PER OCO STR SAI HAM RUS ALO PIA 

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

Despite having plenty to say about the Las Vegas weekend, and none of it good, he still manages to win the race, just his 18th success of the season. And he had to battle for this one, instead of the usual take pole, hide from TV cameras, and win.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

SERGIO PEREZ – A reputation rebuilding race for the Mexican. Looked like business as usual after qualifying where he failed to make Q3, and then suffered damage as part of the first corner clashes, but that early stop and some good driving put him in the mix for a win before halfway. Couldn’t quite hold on for the win, but a good race overall. Last lap losing second place to Leclerc was underwhelming though.

CHARLES LECLERC – Another pole position, and another one not converted into a race win. But he was compeditive throughout the weekend. He just needs more street tracks and less Max Verstappen. Great last lap pass.

OSCAR PIASTRI – McLaren was hopeless in qualifying but the rookie Australian did himself proud running in the top ten for most of the race and fourth after the second safety car. A late pit stop cost him a bag O points but got one.

LANCE STROLL – A fine race from Lance Stroll. From the lower reaches of the grid to solid points. The early pitstop for tyres being his friend, but he raced well too.

ESTEBAN OCON – Another with good point scoring from a low grid position. And a sweet move on his team mate would have brought a smile to his dial as well.

THE GRAPE-EST – CARLOS SAINZ

The ten grid place penalty was absurd, then he is tangled up in first corner clashes too. A point scoring drive is a good end result, but he had the pace to run at the front and was unable to.

DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS

FERNANDO ALONSO – Dropped it at the first corner and was behind the eight ball for the rest of the race.

FIA – Appalling Thursday.

HAAS – Good qualifying, their race car rhymes with their name.

ALPHA TAURI – Even worse.

Was it a good race, loads of action, tense, 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.

Note: this is for the combined races.

SEASON IMPORTANCE – 3 / 10

Prety important race if the battle for runners up is your thing. Big race from Sergio Perez and some bad luck for Lewis Hamilton has all but sorted the runners up tag.

ON TRACK ACTION – 9 / 10

First of all, we saw a pass for the lead, and Verstappen being the leader displaced. That was just before Verstappen’s first pit stop, and there were more later in the race. Amazing. Some first corner shenanigans always bumps up the score. Plenty of midfield moving and shaking after a bunch of fast cars were left at the back of the grid due to the first lap. 

ENDING 7 / 10

Some good racing at the front and in the midfield, but the pass of Leclerc on Perez on the last lap was a real beaut, and livened up the usual procession to the finish line for Verstappen in front.

OVERALL RATING 19 / 30

So the race lived up to some of the hype with passing, and action from start to finish. It may just save this race in the future.

2023 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.

Who not check out last race which includes the season ratings so far: Mexican Grand Prix and 2023 Driver Ratings.