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After all the hyperbole and hysteria over Formula One’s return to Sin City four decades after the Caesar’s Palace parking lot races, the talking stops and it is time for the inaugural running of the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Tune in on The Roar for the penultimate race of the season with live blog coverage and lap-by-lap updates from 4:50pm (AEDT).
Staged around 6.2km of downtown Vegas streets, with 17 corners and a long 1.9km flat-out run down the iconic strip – drivers face the unique challenge of a green track surface, cold temperatures, and the usual perils of a street circuit.
The race itself will be 50 laps, with expectation for Safety Car interventions and even red flag stoppages. Tyre wise, bringing them up to temperature will be the challenge and if there are Safety Cars, the restarts could breed more chaos.
Pirelli have brought the softest compounds in their range with anticipation that the track won’t be as stressful on the rubber as other street circuits such as Baku. Despite that, it is unclear as to how many stops we can anticipate in this race.
With both championships sewn up by Max Verstappen and Red Bull, there is still a fight on for minor positions. Mercedes are 20-points ahead of Ferrari for second, while McLaren are 21 ahead of Aston Martin for fourth.
6-points separate Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz for fourth in the driver’s standings, though the latter faces a challenging race having to start with a 10-place grid penalty. This was after Sainz’s Ferrari was damaged by a loose drain cover in the first practice and the team were forced to change the Energy Store.
Williams in seventh are only 7-points clear of AlphaTauri, who with the return of Daniel Ricciardo to F1 have been on a points streak of late and climbed from last to eighth. Though with both Williams cars starting in the top ten and the AlphaTauri duo not – there is chance for the former to cement their standing.
Charles Leclerc will start from pole position, in what would’ve been a Ferrari front-row lockout if it wasn’t for the Sainz grid penalty. Instead, the Monegasque driver is accompanied by Verstappen, who’s Red Bull hasn’t looked the quickest around Vegas all weekend.
On race pace the Red Bull may still eclipse the Ferrari, though the cooler conditions and the low-downforce nature of the circuit which suits the characteristics of the Prancing Horse – could make for a two-way battle for the win.
Lights out: 5pm (AEDT)
Venue: Las Vegas Strip Circuit, Las Vegas
TV: Fox Sports
Online: Kayo Sports
Grid
1. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 3. George Russell (Mercedes), 4. Pierre Gasly (Alpine), 5. Alexander Albon (Williams), 6. Logan Sargeant (Williams), 7. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), 8. Kevin Magnussen (Haas), 9. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), 10. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 11. Sergio Perez (Red Bull), 12. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), 13. Nico Hülkenberg (Haas), 14. Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri), 15. Lando Norris (McLaren), 16. Esteban Ocon (Alpine), 17. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), 18. Oscar Piastri (McLaren), 19. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), 20. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
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