Despite his best efforts to get ahead, fuelled by an impeccable start, Monegasque Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc started and ended the Las Vegas Grand Prix in P4 over the weekend.
Starting from the second row, directly behind his teammate Carlos Sainz, the 27-year-old Monegasque enjoyed a perfect start as the lights went out on the Strip. Leclerc soared past Sainz and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who had split the two Ferraris in qualifying, and took off in hot pursuit of the pole sitter, Mercedes’ George Russell.
He pushed hard, aggressively chasing the race leader, but soon ran into difficulties that dramatically affected his pace. By Lap 7, Sainz was back ahead of Leclerc, and then came Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on Lap 8.
The following lap, the Monegasque driver headed for the pits, switching from Medium tyres to Hards, and rejoined way down the pecking order in 16th. Sainz followed his teammate in, and once the pair were back on track, they swiftly made their way up through the grid and back into the fight by Lap 14.
The next 15 or so laps saw a shuffling of drivers at the top end: Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who will join Leclerc at Ferrari in 2025, had started in P10 but proved determined, while Verstappen put in the work to gain a position on McLaren’s Lando Norris in a bid to seal his fourth consecutive Drivers’ Championship title.
Leclerc pitted again on Lap 31 and rejoined in fifth, behind Sainz, Verstappen, Hamilton and Russell. By Lap 45, he had followed Sainz in overtaking the Red Bull and took P4. From there until the end of the race, the order was set. It was a solid win for Russell.
Hamilton, meanwhile, was voted Driver of the Day, and Verstappen celebrated his 2024 Drivers’ Championship win with two more races to go on the calendar.
But the game isn’t over yet in the Constructors’ Standings. McLaren are still ahead of Ferrari, but only by 24 points after the Ferrari duo claimed 27 under the Las Vegas lights while Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri picked up 15.
“I finished the race where I started it, so it wasn’t that exciting, but if you look at the details, it was quite an eventful one,” said Leclerc post-race. “Unfortunately, we degraded the fronts on the first stint on Mediums, but we were able to come back on the Hards, which were working better.”
He added, “Big congratulations to Max [Verstappen]. He deserves this Championship title. He has had an amazing season and always maximised his results, which has paid off for him. It gives us motivation to be even stronger next year, and hopefully we can put him under some more pressure then. We will push hard in the last two races to try to finish the season ahead of McLaren.”
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Photo source: Scuderia Ferrari Media Centre