2023 Heineken Las Vegas Grand Prix Race Recap

LAS VEGAS — Charles Leclerc will start from pole position at the Las Vegas Grand Prix after beating teammate Carlos Sainz under the neon lights of the brand new Formula 1 street circuit.

Sainz is set to receive a ten-place penalty after a loose water valve cover on the Strip destroyed the underside of his car during Thursday’s opening practice session and forced Ferrari to install a new unit of power, thus allowing it to exceed its quota of energy reserves this year. .

The pole position was Leclerc’s fifth this season, but each time he failed to turn first place on the grid into victory. He will face tough competition from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who set the third fastest time, 0.378 seconds behind Leclerc, but will be promoted to second thanks to Sainz’s penalty.

After a chaotic first day of testing on Thursday – sparked by the Sainz incident which led to five hours of track repairs and a delay to the second session – Friday’s qualifying day ended without a hitch.

Mercedes’ George Russell set the fourth-fastest time, but will move up to third on the grid ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in a fourth-fastest penalty and both Williams drivers, who put in impressive performances to secure fifth and sixth place in the peloton.

Valtteri Bottas will be seventh ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Fernando Alonso.

Lewis Hamilton failed to qualify for the top ten, declaring “I couldn’t go any faster” on the Mercedes team radio as he returned to the pits.

Sergio Perez also missed the cut for Q3 after Red Bull pitted him unusually early before the end of Q2. The Mexican will start from 11th place ahead of Sainz, Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo.

Both McLaren drivers were eliminated in the opening session after struggling to get the timings right for their fast laps at the end of Q1. Lando Norris will start 15th while Oscar Piastri was 19th fastest, but will be promoted one place as Lance Stroll, who was 14th fastest, was penalized five places for ignoring yellow flags during final practice.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was also eliminated in Q1 after battling with Verstappen for position in the first corner of his fast lap. After both drivers started their laps at the same time, Verstappen attempted to pass Ocon in Turn 1, pushing both wide and leaving the Alpine driver unable to improve his time.

Zhou Guanyu finished 18th in qualifying and will start 17th ahead of 18th-placed Piastri, 19th-placed Stroll and 19th-placed Yuki Tsunoda, who failed to put together a fast lap and finished 1.5 seconds behind Piastri.