Las Vegas Grand Prix: Formula One live race updates, blog

Thank you for tuning in to this live blog of the Las Vegas Grand Prix on The Roar. Pleasure to have your company as always. One more round to go then for the 2023 F1 season in Abu Dhabi next week, but until then it is bye for now.

Thoughts on that one then Roarers? Did Las Vegas live up to the hype?

-------- DRIVER'S -------- 549 - Max Verstappen 273 - Sergio Perez 232 - Lewis Hamilton 200 - Carlos Sainz 200 - Fernando Alonso 295 - Lando Norris 188 - Charles Leclerc 160 - George Russell 89 -- Oscar Piastri 73 -- Lance Stroll 62 -- Pierre Gasly 58 -- Esteban Ocon 27 -- Alexander Albon 13 -- Yuki Tsunoda 10 -- Valterri Bottas 9 --- Nico Hülkenberg 6 --- Daniel Ricciardo 6 --- Zhou Guanyu 3 --- Kevin Magnussen 2 --- Liam Lawson 1 --- Logan Sargeant 0 --- Nyck De Vries

----- CONSTRUCTOR'S ----- 822 - Red Bull Racing 392 - Mercedes AMG 388 - Ferrari 284 - McLaren Mercedes 273 - Aston Martin Racing 120 - Alpine 28 -- Williams Mercedes 21 -- Scuderia AlphaTauri 16 -- Alfa Romeo Racing 12 -- Haas Ferrari

RACE REPORT Max Verstappen has won the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix in a sensational 50-lap race, which saw the reigning world champion penalised 5-seconds for a first lap incident and the battle for second decided on the final lap. Polesitter Charles Leclerc was forced wide by the fast starting Red Bull into the first corner, with the stewards deciding that a 5-second penalty was apt for Verstappen’s actions. The Ferrari driver took second from the sister Red Bull of Sergio Perez with a last gasp move into Turn 14 down the inside on the final lap. Leclerc ultimately disappointed with Ferrari for not pitting twice – like the Red Bulls. There was a Virtual Safety Car early, after Turn 1 melees further down the order. Fernando Alonso spun himself and found Valtteri Bottas. While Perez damaged his front-wing hitting the rear of the Alfa Romeo. Carlos Sainz with his 10-place grid penalty, also suffered from a lack of grip at the start and turned into the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton – which made the race challenging for them. There was a Safety Car proper on Lap 3 with Lando Norris losing the rear-end of his McLaren and hitting the wall at the high-speed Turn 12. The Briton was ok thankfully, but taken to the local hospital for precautionary checks. Lap 8 saw the 5-second penalty handed down to Verstappen, though Leclerc had the pace to retake the lead off the Red Bull by Lap 16 – just before the Dutchman pitted for fresh hard tyres. There were battles up and down the field, as Hamilton made contact with Oscar Piastri in the sole running McLaren. Both Alpines also scrapped away with each other, making for entertaining racing with Esteban Ocon collecting fourth. Leclerc pitted on Lap 22, but another Safety Car on Lap 26 to clear the debris from Verstappen’s move on Russell into Turn 12 which caused contact – played into the favour of the Red Bulls who both pitted for a second time. The contact with Russell, for which the Briton was penalised 5-seconds as well – damaged Verstappen’s front-wing which Red Bull elected not to change in the stop. Notably, Piastri didn’t stop either under the Safety Car and still had to use a compound other than the hards in the race. The Aussie pitted on Lap 44 for mediums to make a late assault toward the top ten and collected the fastest lap of the race also. Lap 43 saw Leclerc outbrake himself coming onto the Vegas strip, which allowed Perez back into second – but then the Mexican was caught napping again at Turn 14, where the Monegasque driver was able to take back second. A stellar race for Lance Stroll too, saw the Canadian avoid the chaos en route to fifth ahead of Stroll and Hamilton who both had to recover from their opening lap incidents. Russell’s penalty dropped him to eighth, while Alonso in ninth made it double points for Aston Martin. Verstappen’s victory was the 53rd of his career, putting him equal to four-time Sebastian Vettel’s all-time career tally. One win away now from moving to third on the leaderboard.

STANDBY FOR RACE REPORT & UPDATED STANDINGS

POST-RACE INTERVIEWS - Hosted by David Coulthard VERSTAPPEN - "It was a tough one, I tried to go for it at the start and I ran out of grip." "There was a lot going on in the race." "I had to pass a few cars to get into the battle with them." "The DRS created quite a bit of good racing here today." "It was a lot of fun out there." LECLERC - "I was disappointed to finish second." "We were very strong overall, that was a really good race." "We got unlucky with the Safety Car. We wanted the track position." PEREZ - "We had a lot of damage initially." "Progressively we were picking places one-by-one." "With the Safety Car I overtook Charles, but I had too much wing on my car." "It was quite difficult out there with the constant wind." "I wasn't expecting him [Charles]."

RESULTS FROM THE 50-LAP LAS VEGAS GRAND PRIX 1 M. Verstappen 2 C. Leclerc 3 S. Perez 4 E. Ocon 5 L. Stroll 6 C. Sainz 7 L. Hamilton 8 G. Russell* 9 F. Alonso 10 O. Piastri (Fastest Lap) 11 P. Gasly 12 A. Albon 13 K. Magnussen 14 D. Ricciardo 15 G. Zhou 16 L. Sargeant 17 V. Bottas RET Y. Tsunoda RET N. Hülkenberg RET L. Norris

MAX VERSTAPPEN WINS THE LAS VEGAS GRAND PRIX! Polesitter Charles Leclerc with that last gasp move at Turn 14 to claim second. And Sergio Perez has to settle for third after starting eleventh.

Lap 50/50: Leclerc has done it at Turn 14! He dives down the inside takes second off the Red Bull. What a last gasp move from the Ferrari.

Lap 50/50: FINAL LAP Leclerc still in the hunt for second, with a gap within DRS range behind Perez.

Lap 49/50: Russell is through on Stroll for fifth and is 1.6-seconds off Ocon. But there is still a 5-second penalty for the Brit to serve. Piastri is through into tenth and into the points then. Tsunoda has a gearbox issue and is out of the race.

Lap 48/50: Piastri within DRS range of Gasly now then.

Lap 47/50: Hamilton passes his former teammate Alonso for eighth then. Piastri sets the fastest lap of the race then, as the gap to Gasly is halved on this lap. Hülkenberg triggered a brief yellow flag, as he parks his Haas on the service road. He is out of the race then.

Yeah, he had to because he had only used the hard tyre so far.