5 Winners and 5 Losers from Las Vegas – Whose gamble paid off under the lights?

Max Verstappen was in party mode in Las Vegas after he secured his fourth successive Formula 1 world championship – and while others were also spraying the bubbles, including race winner George Russell, some were keen to move on to the next one. Lawrence Barretto picks his winners and losers from the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s task in Las Vegas was simple – finish ahead of title rival Lando Norris and he would be a four-time world champion. That looked like an ambitious goal after Thursday practice, where Red Bull struggled for grip in the corners and top speed on the straights.
Despite those deficiencies, he found a way to snatch P5 on the grid – one position ahead of Norris. In the race, he ran as high as second before slipping back to fifth.
READ MORE: Our writers on Verstappen’s standout moments in 2024, his place amongst the F1 greats – and if he can get even better
That’s well below his high standards but in this specific case it mattered not as it was enough to become only the sixth driver (after Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton) in F1 history to win four world championships.
Lando Norris knew his championship hopes were hanging by a thread after a challenging race weekend last time out in Brazil.
And with the McLaren struggling to match rivals Ferrari for pure pace in Las Vegas – while also being unexpectedly outperformed by Mercedes – his title ambitions were ultimately extinguished under Vegas’s neon lights on Sunday.
There was a silver lining, though. The Briton’s aims of winning a title in 2024 remains intact after he snatched the fastest lap on the final lap to score a point that could be crucial in their tight fight with Ferrari.
READ MORE: ‘Max just doesn’t have a weakness’ – Norris hails champion Verstappen as he seals title glory in Las Vegas
Carlos Sainz rebounded from an unusually off-colour weekend in Brazil to score his third podium in four Grands Prix with a punchy drive to third in Vegas.
The Spaniard knew he was quick in Vegas having qualified second last year (only to start 12th after a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change) and that continued to be the case this time around.
He qualified second again and while he lost ground at the start, he recovered to secure his eighth podium of the season and close to within nine points of Oscar Piastri in the fight for P4 in the drivers’ standings.
Yes, Ferrari trimmed the gap to McLaren to 24 points in the fight for the constructors’ championship with a 3-4 finish in Las Vegas – but they were expecting so much more.
There were errors with Sainz’s strategy, which included him being forced to abort a trip into the pits at very short notice, while Charles Leclerc was irritated to have lost out to his team mate and failed to make the podium.
The scarlet cars face an uphill battle to catch McLaren as the papaya outfit are overwhelming favourites in Qatar as the circuit layout is expected to suit them while the finale at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island is also expected to be a happy hunting ground.
READ MORE: ‘We didn’t execute’ – P3 finisher Sainz explains bizarre Ferrari pit lane incident in Las Vegas
Haas are locked in the tightest of fights with RB and Alpine for P6 in the championship – and it’s a drive like Nico Hulkenberg’s in Las Vegas that could make the difference.
The German made his 10th Q3 appearance of the season to start ninth and then showed strong pace in the midfield via a two-stop strategy to catch and pass RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and snatch eighth.
That launched Haas back ahead of Alpine into P6 in the constructors’ by a point with two Grands Prix (and a Sprint) to go.
Alex Albon’s dreadful form continued into a fifth successive weekend as he was kicked out of Q1 for the fourth time this season, having started fifth in Vegas last year.
He recovered brilliantly from P18 to run inside the top-10 and was in with a strong chance of points before a PU issue forced him to retire the car.
That compounded a miserable run of races for the Thai driver. He has failed to make the chequered flag since Austin courtesy of matters outside his control, and is searching for his first points since Baku.
READ MORE: What the teams said – Race day in Las Vegas
It might seem strange to call McLaren winners as they were outperformed by both Mercedes and Ferrari in Las Vegas and saw their lead in the constructors’ championship slashed.
But they knew this weekend would be tough as the circuit didn’t suit their car. They anticipated Ferrari would dominate and secure a 1-2. That didn’t happen while McLaren minimised the damage with a 6-7.
It’s performances like this, when your back is against the wall, that could make the difference in tight title fights.
Sergio Perez’s painful run of form continued into Las Vegas as the Mexican – who finished third in this race last year – suffered his sixth Q1 elimination of 2024.
The Grand Prix didn’t get much better as, while he made progress, the best he could do was scraping into the top-10 in 10th.
The Mexican has scored just nine points in the last five Grand Prix weekends. That is less than Red Bull team mate Verstappen managed in Vegas alone.
READ MORE: ‘We are close to turning things around’ – Perez insists he can still bounce back after ‘out of sync’ Las Vegas GP
Yuki Tsunoda built on a strong result in Brazil with an accomplished performance across the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend that keeps RB in the fight for P6 in the constructors’ championship.
The Japanese driver qualified seventh or better for the second successive race, having started third in Brazil, and then scored points in back-to-back races with P9.
That’s his ninth score of the season that keeps him within touching distance of a top-10 finish in the drivers’ standings, five points shy of Hulkenberg.
Pierre Gasly continued his fine run of form in qualifying with a sensational top-three start in Las Vegas.
While he lost places in the early phase of the Grand Prix, the Frenchman was still on course to score a healthy number of points when he suffered a suspected PU issue.
His team mate Esteban Ocon tickled the top-10, having qualified P11, but ultimately faded to 17th to end Alpine’s run of two races in the points.
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