2023 F1, Las Vegas GP outcomes: Verstappen defeats Leclerc, Perez

The Las Vegas GP could have gotten off to a rocky begin, however the venue delivered loads of motion on race day. Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez all led the race in some unspecified time in the future, however Verstappen ended up taking his 18th win of the season. And it was a hard-fought win, with Verstappen overcoming a penalty, wing harm and overtaking his rivals alongside the way in which.

1. Vertsappen wins, 2.070secs from Leclerc
2. Perez goes from P11 to P3

Verstappen wins Las Vegas GP thriller

Verstappen took the lead at first, however was handed a five-second time penalty for forcing Leclerc off observe. Leclerc then handed Verstappen on Lap 16, simply earlier than the Red Bull driver headed into the pits to serve his penalty.

While attempting to claw his approach again into the lead, Verstappen collided with George Russell, with each automobiles selecting up some harm within the course of. Russell was given a five-second time penalty for the incident.

Down the order, Sergio Perez was gaining floor, having pitted on the opening lap after contact with Valtteri Bottas. The Safety Car – introduced out to scrub up the particles on observe following the Verstappen/Russell conflict – gave Perez the proper alternative. The Mexican took his ultimate pitstop and emerged simply behind Leclerc. He briefly even took the lead, however Leclerc repassed him a number of laps later.

All of this allowed Verstappen to catch up and he cleared each Perez and Leclerc to take victory. With this, the Red Bull driver now equals Sebastian Vettel’s tally of F1 wins. “It was a tough one,” Verstappen admitted.

“I tried to go for it [with Leclerc] at the start. I think we both braked quite late, then I just ran out of grip and we ended up a bit wide, so the stewards gave me a penalty for that. Of course, that put us a little bit on the backfoot, I had to pass quite a few cars, then the Safety Car again. At the point already there was a lot going on in the race,”

“Once we had the message to the end we could go flat-out. You could clearly see with the DRS around here it was very powerful, so even when you would take the lead, if the guy behind would stay in the DRS, he would still have an opportunity to come back at you. I think it created quite a lot of good racing here today, so it was definitely a lot of fun.”

Leclerc defeats Perez for P2

Leclerc locked up into Turn 14, handing P2 to Sergio Perez. But the Ferrari driver remained inside DRS vary and pulled off a transfer on the final lap, into the Turn 14 braking zone, to reclaim P2.

Russell completed P4 on observe, however his penalty dropped him to eighth place. This handed P4 to Esteban Ocon. Lance Stroll was fifth, adopted by Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton. Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri accomplished the highest 10.

There’s only one extra F1 race to go this 12 months, with Abu Dhabi set to host the finale on November 24-25.

2023 Las Vegas GP outcomes

Also see:

Verstappen wins Brazil GP; Alonso bags photo finish P3