Three-time Formula One world champion Max Verstappen took victory in the inaugural Las Vegas street race despite been handed a 5s penalty for forcing Charles Leclerc off the track on the opening lap of the race.
Speaking following the action, Verstappen said:
Viva Las Vegas! The race was exciting, fun and very hectic! We really had to work hard for it today, there was a lot of overtaking and racing which made it really fun. It was a tough start on the mediums but once we went on to the hard tyre it was better. The five second penalty at the start was unfortunate, I really didn’t mean to push Charles off, we both braked late in to turn one and there was no grip. We had a lot more pace in the car after we pit for hard. I also had a damaged front wing so I definitely lost a lot of downforce with that, it was still driveable so we opted to carry on. We were pushing flat out to the end and on the final lap, I tried to help Checo to give him a bit of slip stream, it’s a shame we couldn’t convert the one-two in this race but it’s great that we’ve secured the one-two in the Championship this year. Now we head to the final race in Abu Dhabi.”
Charles Leclerc finished the race in second place just ahead of Sergio Perez while Esteban Ocon came through the field to finish the race in fourth place just ahead of Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz who recovered from his ten place grid penalty.
Lewis Hamilton recovered from contact with Carlos Sainz to finish the race in seventh place just ahead of George Russell and Fernando Alonso while Oscar Piastri rounded out the top ten.
Pierre Gasly tumbled down the order and finished the race in 11th place just ahead of Alex Albon after neither Williams were able to take advantage of their great qualifying.
Kevin Magnussen was 13th just ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Zhou Guanyu and Logan Sargeant.
Valtteri Bottas was 17th while Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda and Nico Hulkenberg retired from the race.