Qualifying:

Q1:

With all three practice sessions being topped by a fast-paced Mercedes, all attention turned to the hour of Qualifying at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit and who would have the pace to ultimately secure pole position for Sunday’s Grand Prix race.

It was questionable whether Lance Stroll would be involved in the Qualifying session, with the Aston Martin mechanics having to change the Energy Recovery System aboard his Mercedes-powered car as a result of it stopping during the closing stages of the final practice session.

Oscar Piastri provisionally led the standings with a time of 1:33.450s over McLaren teammate Norris and Ferrari’s Leclerc as everyone made their way onto the track to set their first flying lap times – all except Stroll and the Haas pair of Magnussen and Hulkenberg.

With the tyres beginning to come up to temperature and the drivers becoming more confident on the circuit, improvements began flooding the timesheet, with Russell moving into the top spot with a 1:33.363s ahead of Leclerc, Piastri, Sainz, Norris and Verstappen.

Perez found himself in danger of elimination in Q1 alongside Bottas, Colapinto, Lawson and Stroll – who eventually made it out on track for a last-minute effort – as the clock ticked down.

With the drivers logging one final flying lap before the chequered flag, several drivers moved into the P1 position before being knocked further down, including Verstappen and Hamilton, before Russell once again brought the benchmark time down to a 1:33.186.

Safely progressing into Q2 included: both Ferrari’s and McLaren’s, the Haas and Alpine duos, the RB’s of Tsunoda and Lawson, Williams’ Colapinto and Sauber’s Zhou.

Perez found himself the first driver eliminated in 16th after he failed to improve from his earlier effort, and would be joined in the elimination zone by Alonso, Albon (who had his lap time deleted), Bottas and Stroll.

Q2:

Hamilton was the first to place a time on the board at the start of the second Qualifying session with a 1:33.881s, with McLaren’s Piastri one thousandth of a second behind, and Verstappen only six hundredths further back in third position.

Russel soon made his move with a 1:32.881s slotting once again into the top spot ahead of his teammate who had further improved with a 1:32.965s ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen – with the reigning World Champion briefly holding the P1 position.

Onto the final few runs of the session, Hamilton once again improved by clocking a 1:32.567s to move into P1, followed closely by Sainz, Russell, Gasly, Leclerc and Piastri. The remaining Q3 spots were quickly claimed by Verstappen, Tsunoda, Norris and Hulkenberg.

Drama occurred due to a last-ditch attempt to get into the pole shootout by Williams’ Colapinto, with the Argentinian driver clipping the wall on the inside of Turn 16 before making heavy contact with the barrier on the other side of the track. Whilst he walked away from the incident relatively unharmed, the mechanics at Williams would be set to have a big job to complete the repairs necessary to allow him to start the race on Sunday from P14.

Those also eliminated in Q2 included Alpine’s Ocon, Magnussen, Zhou – after making his first Q2 appearance since the Hungarian Grand Prix – and RB’s Liam Lawson.

Q3:

After a slight delay to running of Q3 to allow the track marshalls to clean the track surface and officials to inspect the barriers, the all-clear was given and the remaining 10 cars took to the circuit for the pole position shootout.

Russell once again went quickest on the initial runs, clocking a 1:32.811s, ahead of Sainz, Verstappen and the McLaren duo of Norris and Piastri, whilst Mercedes teammate Hamilton sat in 10th position after suffering a lock-up and ultimately having to abandon his first lap.

It wasn’t all clear runnings for Russell however, as replays showed the Briton clipping the wall at Turn 5 in his attempt to secure the provisional pole position.

With the timesheet lighting up with green and purple sector times in the closing minutes of Qualifying, Russell was the last to return to the track from the pits, clocking a stellar lap of 1:32.312s to claim the P1 position for Sunday’s race, demoting Sainz and Gasly who had both logged impressive times of their own.

2023 pole-sitter Leclerc failed to repeat his performance from last year settling into fourth place, ahead of the title-contending pair of Verstappen and Norris who finished in fifth and sixth place respectively. Tsunoda, Piastri, Hulkenberg and Hamilton completed the top-10, with the latter suffering from a slide through Turn 3 on his final attempt.

Grand Prix Race:

There were a couple of alterations to the starting grid ahead of the race, with Bottas dropping behind Stroll at the back of the grid due to a penalty for installing a new power unit component, whilst Colapinto would be set to start from the pitlane instead of his P14 spot as a result of the extensive repairs required to his Williams after his crash in Qualifying.

With the five lights out and the Las Vegas Grand Prix now underway, pole-sitter Russell had a great launch off the line to retain the lead going into the first corner, while Leclerc made a charge from P4 to take P2 after passing both Gasly and Sainz through Turns 1 and 2.

Verstappen and Norris began their battle by going wheel-to-wheel in the first sector, remaining in P5 and P6 respectively, ahead of Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Piastri and Hamilton.

Onto Lap 4, Leclerc was now sitting right of the rear wing of Russell and attempted an overtake at Turn 14, forcing the Mercedes driver to go on the defence through Turn1 at the beginning of Lap 5 in an attempt to keep the Ferrari behind. Verstappen also attempted a move at Turn 5, slipping past Gasly to take P4 and place another car between himself and Norris.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso had a strong start, gaining several positions in the opening laps, only to lose any advantage when he was forced to pit early on to change his soft tyres. McLaren’s Piastri also had a troubling start as he was deemed by the stewards to have started in an incorrect position and was handed a five-second time penalty.

Leclerc soon found any strong pace he once had diminishing as he was passed by Sainz and Verstappen in quick succession, dropping from P2 down to P4. Elsewhere, Hamilton made an overtake stick on Piastri to move into eighth, whilst Norris passed Gasly to take P5.

Lap 10 of 50 saw more drivers enter the pits, with Leclerc changing from the mediums to the hard compound tyres, along with McLaren’s Norris. One lap later, Sainz, Gasly, Tsunoda and Piastri also entered the pitlane, leaving Russell and Verstappen to stay out at the front whilst promoting Hamilton to third.

Verstappen changed to the hard compound tyres on Lap 12, rejoining the track in the midfield – although crucially ahead of the Ferraris and title contender Norris – followed by the race leader Russell on Lap 13.

A few laps later, those front-runners who chose to extend their stint had pitted and Russel was back in the race leader with Verstappen, Sainz, Leclerc and Norris following closely.

Disaster soon struck for Gasly as he came over the radio stating he had “no power” before the rear of Alpine began smoking. He was forced to return to the pit-lane and retire from the race – a blow to Alpine’s Constructors’ efforts.

With a fresh set of tyres and soon clear track ahead of him, Hamilton lit up the timesheets whilst closing the gap to Norris, before making quick work of an overtake and setting his sights on the Ferrari of Leclerc further up the road.

At the halfway point of the race, Russell had a comfortable gap of 10 seconds ahead of Verstappen, followed by the Ferrari duo of Sainz and Leclerc and Hamilton. Norris was still running in sixth, with Tsunoda, Piastri, Hulkenberg and Albon filling out the final points-paying positions.

With the question pre-race being whether it would be a singular stop or two-stop race, Ocon and Alonso soon provided the answer by pitting for a second time – with the Aston Martin’s hard compound tyres only lasting for 20 laps. Albon was the next to make his way into the pits, however it was not to change tyres but to retire the car after the Williams team found a technical issue.

Verstappen and Hamilton were the first of the front-runner to pit for another set of hard tyres on Lap 28, whilst Sainz also looked set to make a stop, only to be told to stay out by the team at the very last minute and rejoin the track before eventually making a stop on the next lap.

Over the next few tours around the track, Norris, Leclerc and Russell all made their second stops, with Hamilton making a DRS-assisted overtake on Verstappen down the back straight,

Further back, an unseen incident was noted by the stewards involving Lawson and Ocon at Turn 3, with the Alpine driver voicing frustration over contact, however it was determined that there would be no further investigation and no penalties were handed out.

Following all the tyre swaps, the Mercedes duo of Russell and Hamilton were soon running in a one-two formation, ahead of Verstappen, the Ferrari pairing of Sainz and Leclerc – Leclerc rejoined the track ahead of Sainz before being overtaken by his teammate – and Norris.

Hamilton’s fast pace continued over the next few laps, taking several tenths of a second out of Russell, who in response increased his pace. Verstappen meanwhile, dropped back closer to the Ferrari’s, coming over the radio to ask the team if they wanted him to defend.

In the second Red Bull, Perez made a double-overtake on Magnussen and Lawson going into Turn 14, with the trio managing to avoid any sort of collision, before the Mexican driver continued to make his way up the field with a pass on Ocon to move into P11 – just behind Alonso in P10.

After several laps hovering behind the Red Bull of Verstappen, Sainz made an overtake stick, quickly followed by teammate Leclerc who made his way past on Lap 47.

Hamilton’s fast paced meant the gap between the pair stabilised around five seconds, with the Briton’s engineer encouraging him to keep going on until the end, ultimately getting the job done as the chequered flag was thrown and Russell secured his third career Grand Prix victory.

Hamilton crossed the line in P2 meaning he saw his first trip to the podium since inheriting the Belgian Grand Prix victory following Russell’s disqualification, and also saw the F1 2024 season being the first in F1 history in which four different constructors have finished one-two in a Grand Prix (Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes).

Sainz, Leclerc and Verstappen held their formation in P3, P4 and P5 respectively, with Norris pitting for a set of soft tyres in order to score the fastest lap bonus point, with enough time in hand to rejoin the track ahead of his team mate Piastri.

Hulkenberg claimed eighth ahead of Tsunoda thanks to a late pass, pushing Haas up to P6 in the Constructors’ standings, whilst Perez salvaged a singular point thanks to his double overtake and a last minute overtake on Alonso.

Magnussen claimed P12 after being the only driver to pit a singular time, followed by Zhou and Colapinto – who managed to get at least one of the Willaims to the finish after Albon’s retirement.

Stroll took the chequered flag in 15th, ahead of Lawson and Ocon – the latter having pitted for softs late on in the race as well – with Bottas to be last classified finisher given Albon and Gasly’s retirements.

Verstappen’s P5 finish – crucially ahead of title-rival Norris – meant he became the sixth driver in F1 history to win four (or more) World Championships, after Juan-Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.