The Formula 1 edit

The las vegas grand prix

Article by Finley Ever

Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas! One of the newest tracks to enter the F1 calendar, The Vegas Strip is certainly an unfortunate race to miss! Since its maiden voyage in 2023, this night race has seen two champions on the top step of its podium! 2023 was four-time world champion Max Verstappen’s year, and George Russell secured the win the last time around! It’s anyone’s game. But the most important player on the track this year is Lando Norris.

After surpassing his teammate, Lando now resides on the top step of the Championship contenders. With Oscar Piastri, now in a close second with a gap to first of 24 points, a win in Vegas for the Brit would give him an extra safety cushion and a higher probability of securing his first title.

The grid

Here is your starting grid for the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix

  1. Lando Norris (McLaren)
  2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
  3. Carlos Sainz (Williams)
  4. George Russell (Mercedes)
  5. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
  6. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
  7. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
  8. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
  9. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
  10. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
  11. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
  12. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
  13. Esteban Ocon (Haas)
  14. Ollie Bearman (Haas)
  15. Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
  16. Alex Albon (Williams)
  17. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
  18. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
  19. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
  20. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)

the race

It’s lights out and away we go racing in Vegas! Max gets a good launch off the line, but Lando is quick to defend his position…aggressively! He turns into the inside of the track, which ends up being right in front of Max, which in turn makes the Dutchman back off slightly. Lando swerves wide through turn 1, which gives Max the perfect opportunity to take first from his championship rival! Max Verstappen swoops in and takes the lead! Well, that didn’t take long! Lando regains his place on the track in second, but George Russell decides to take advantage of Lando’s stress from losing first! He pushes with all his might, but Lando wants to maintain his position desperately. The efforts from the Papaya driver just aren’t enough when it comes to the Mercedes in this moment! George smoothly passes Lando for second. At the start of the race and farther back on the grid, a lot more havoc was being wrecked! Brazilian rookie Gabriel Bortoleto attempted to gain some positions but ended up crashing into the side of an Aston Martin, which sent him into a spinning frenzy! The Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson banged into the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, but no significant damage was done because the contact was only wheel to wheel collision. Kimi Antonelli, 17th, also received a five second penalty for a false start from his grid position. The yellow flag now waves.

In lap 2, still under the watchful eyes of the yellow flag, Oscar Piastri passes Liam Lawson for 6th. Even though Oscar has no damage from his previous bump against Liam’s car, the Kiwi is suffering from the consequences of the collision. Sparks fly from the front of his holographic Racing Bulls. Both Oliver Bearman and Charles Leclerc follow Oscar in passing Liam.

In lap 5, Charles Leclerc passes the Haas of rookie Ollie Bearman to take 7th. He speeds up with his newfound clean air to attempt to pass the Man from Melbourne up ahead! In lap 12, he gets his chance. Oscar, P7, is trying with all his might to gain speed and pass Isack Hadjar ahead of him, but before he can even think about the car ahead, the car behind passes him! Charles Leclerc to 7th!

In lap 13, Charles’ overtaking streak continues! He smoothly passes Isack Hadjar for 5th place! What a drive from the Monegasque!

In lap 14, Alex Albon and Lewis Hamilton make contact when Alex attempts to pass the Ferrari driver for 12th, but as he’s passing, he bumps into the back of Lewis, causing quite a bit of debris to fall off of his car and litter the track! Alex heads into the pit lane to fix his car, and as he’s doing so, the FIA issues him a five second penalty for causing a collision.

In lap 16, the green flag finally flies again. Oscar Piastri wastes no time! He passes Isack Hadjar for 6th.

In lap 23 and multiple pit stops later, Carlos Sainz takes his turn to box and change tires. The Williams pit crew need to execute a perfect pit stop so Carlos can rejoin the race ahead of Oscar. What a stressful place for the Smooth Operator to be in! He exits the pit lane still ahead of Oscar (who already pitted), but once he is racing again at full speed, Oscar is extremely large in his mirrors! Carlos’ new tires are no use when put up against Oscar’s warm ones! Oscar takes 9th.

In lap 34, Lando is told from his race engineer that the time has come to overtake second place and hunt down the lead, Max Verstappen. Lando smoothly passes George Russell for second on a straightaway.

5 laps later, Oscar has already moved back up to 5th position! Much like his teammate, the car now ahead of him is a Mercedes, but this time, it’s the black and teal car of Kimi Antonelli! Oscar puts a lot of pressure onto the Italian teenager, but Kimi holds onto his 4th place position!

In lap 48, it becomes evidently clear that something is wrong with Lando’s car. Now 13 seconds away from Max, Red Bull has been told that Lando is ‘nursing a problem’ with his car! The chance of Lando passing Max and taking the lead back seems to diminish by the second!

Now in the final lap of the race, Lando’s gap to his championship rival is now an astounding 17 seconds! What is happening?! Many fans pry their eyes away from Lando to look ahead! Max Verstappen sees the checkered flag first to win the Las Vegas Grand Prix! What a drive from the 4-time champion! The most memorable part of his drive was a pit stop made from first with a gap to 2nd of 20 seconds, he pitted and came out still in the lead! Lando Norris takes second and George Russell completes the podium!

Even though everyone is celebrating the top 3, the real MVPs of the race are farther back! Kimi Antonelli started the race in 17th position, but after many amazing overtakes AND a five second penalty, he ends in 4th! Much like his replacement at Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton also gained a significant number of places. He started the race from 19th and finished in 10th!

Post race festivities

Even though the race itself was quite the spectacle, what happened after made even more headlines! To transport the drivers to the award ceremony being held in front of the Bellagio fountains, actor Terry Cruise chauffeured the top three in a pink Cadillac made entirely of Lego bricks! A little while into the drive, Max suggested their driver sing a song. If you know anything about Terry Cruise, you probably watched this unfold on television with a smile painted on your face. Terry immediately obliged and burst into song, but not just any song, ‘A Thousand Miles’ by Vanessa Carlton, a song that made Terry a meme when he sung it completely off script on the blockbuster movie ‘White Chicks’. Max joined in momentarily, solidifying the belief by many that Max is the total IT boy of the F1 world!

After the post-race interview, an elaborate water fountain show was held in front of the Bellagio, conducted by none other than Mickey Mouse!

a mclaren fan’s nightmare

Hours after the festivities commenced, a statement was issued that rocked the whole F1 community. Both McLaren drivers, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, were disqualified from the race. The skid plate on both cars was excessively worn down when checked after the Grand Prix, which is said to be the cause for Lando’s slowness in the final laps. McLaren issued their statement a little later, claiming that Lando’s car was bouncing DURING the race, so they weren’t able to fix it. But via Lando’s radio in qualifying the previous day, he was already complaining of this problem. We don’t know whether they chose to ignore it or weren’t able to fix it. The whole Lando fanbase is absolutely livid with this development, claiming that McLaren is trying to sabotage his chance at winning the WDC. Many things were said online, mostly negative, but a few gems made their way to the top!

Since Lando received a DSQ, George made his way up into 2nd, and it also sent his teammate, Kimi, into third, which marks the Italian’s third podium of his rookie F1 season! Both Haas cars also appeared in the top ten! Esteban Ocon in 9th and Ollie Bearman in 10th.

Regardless of the worry for McLaren fans being thrown in every direction, one thing remains, and it’s the fact that there are still two Grand Prix and a Sprint Race left in the season, anything could happen! So, it’s best to not get heated online, let’s just all sit back and attempt to watch everything unfold calmly, if that’s even possible!

After the unfortunate events following the Grand Prix, Lando still leads the WDC with 390 points. Oscar and Max are tied for second, both with 366 points!

results

Here are the top ten finishers for the Las Vegas Grand Prix

  1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
  2. George Russell (Mercedes)
  3. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
  4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
  5. Carlos Sainz (Williams)
  6. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
  7. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
  8. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
  9. Esteban Ocon (Haas)
  10. Ollie Bearman (Haas)

I’ll catch you in Qatar! xx

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