Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez continued their 2023 dominance with a brilliant win and third respectively for Oracle Red Bull Racing at the first ever Las Vegas Grand Prix with the team’s 20th season win breaking the previous constructors’ record of 19 wins that Mercedes set in 2016.
Verstappen got past Leclerc at the start, but was handed a five-second penalty as Pérez had to go in the pits with a front wing change after a few laps with Leclerc overtaking Verstappen on lap 16 – forcing the three-time world champion into the pits for a tyre change.
“It was a tough one,” Verstappen said. “I tried to go for it at the start, but I just ran out of grip. It put us a little bit on the back foot and I had to pass quite a few cars. You could clearly see the DRS was very powerful so, even when you took the lead, the car behind could still have an opportunity to come back at you which created quite a lot of good racing. Definitely a lot of fun.”
Pérez overtook Leclerc for the lead on lap 32, only for the positions to reverse on lap 35 with Verstappen getting past both to lead on lap 37 as he held on for his record 18th victory with Leclerc edging out Pérez on the last lap to end in between the two Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers.
“It was really difficult with the damage initially on the front wing,” Pérez said. “One by one things were going well, we had really strong pace on that first stint but I couldn’t pull away from Charles as my straight line speed was a little bit down. It was quite difficult with the gusts of wind, but luckily we kept it on track. I wasn’t expecting Charles at the end. Las Vegas did deliver.”
Scuderia AlphaTauri duo Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda finished in 14th and 18th place respectively to leave them in eighth place in the 2023 FIA Formula One constructors’ standings with one Abu Dhabi race left.
