Qualifying

Qualifying was quite a spectacle, specially for the silver arrows. Q1 and Q2 saw the Mercedes absolutely smash the times. Hamilton said the best time in the whole qualifying session in Q2. In Q3 however Hamilton had a slight wobble which cost him his time leaving him in 10th Russell managed to get pole position still.

I did see earlier in the week that as this was one of the coldest races of the season this would suit Mercedes more than any other team.

With ann unexpected top three with Russell pole, Sainz 2nd and the Alpine of Gasly 3rd. For a team that was on the brink, this is a great result for them.

Start of the Race

Russell got an excellent start of the line taking and maintaining the lead of the race. Sainz went slightly wide on turn one left the inside open. Leclerc managed to push up into second place by turn 2 and breeze past his teammate.

The next craziness we Lawson and Magnussen side by side through turn 15 and 16 some some great racing early on.

A lot for we seen the Verstappen managed to get past the Alpine. This is looking good for the staffing as all he needs to do to win the championship is finished ahead of Norris who sat in 6th.

Leclerc was also put in Russell under pressure and was getting some heavy assistance from the DRS. He came very close basically side-by-side however Russell managed to get the inside line and hit the apex to turn one.

My lap seven Hamilton was starting to make his way from the park taking eighth position from Piastri. It was just one more on his list.

LeClerc seemed to have pushed his tyres early on trying to get Russell as by lap eight, he was under pressure from the Verstappen and lost 3rd position. For the team that could potentially win the constructors this was a big deal.

The pit stops started to on lap 10. We saw Norris and Leclerc come in after pushing those mediums. Opting for the hard compound this then caused the others to follow over the next few laps Russell pitted on that 13 however Hamilton stayed out slightly longer coming in on lap 14. This worked out very well for Hamilton as he came out just behind Lando Norris within DRS range on a nice fresh set.

The timely pitting ended up creating a slight DRS train from fifth position down to 11th. This was interesting to see as it kept Norris and Sainz close to the fifth position. Verstappen managed to pull away however the rest were still racing.

Unfortunately for Ocon, he appeared to make an error as he missed his garage and had to go through and then pit it again. This was a very costly mistake for his race.

Another disaster for the other Alpine who is on lap 16 the Alpine hit its limit going down the backstreet and cutting out blowing the engine. This is such a shame for Gasly and the team as they were having a great weekend up until this point. They then had to retire the car.

Hamilton carries on with his masterclass overtaking Norris for sixth position. At this point it was looking very unlikely for Norris to make a push on Verstappen, meaning Verstappen only had to coast to a finish.

Perez was left out as he started on the hard compound, however he was not competitive in anyway. This really does put question into where his future is. He was unable to defend and was only able to race against back markers.

After Leclerc overtook Perez. Hamilton was very soon on the tail got him at the very next opportunity. Down the backstreet, Perez lost two positions at the same time.

Hamilton had already made an excellent race going from 10th to 5th however it would become an extraordinary race with two Ferrari’s and a Redbull to hunt down.

Albon had to retire the car due to power unit issue. As a Williams fan, I don’t like to see William go down however, I would be lying if I said I was not used to it. We will build for 2026.

On Lap 27 Sainz was given the order to swap positions with Leclerc. It was terrible timing for the Ferrari team as Hamilton was less than 3/10 behind them when doing the manoeuvre. Sometimes I do wonder what goes through for Ferrari strategist heads. 😂😂 Maybe they were already rooting for Lewis .

On that lap Hamilton did come into the pits. It also looked like Sainz was coming in however, Sainz then cut back across the solid white line of the pit which is a no no, and back on to the track. Luckily for Sainz there was no penalty. Sainz didn't get a penalty for crossing the line on the way into the pit lane because the race director treated it as a track limits infraction, not contravening any rule or any race direction notes. An automatic time penalty for crossing the white line of the pit entry line isn't mandated in F1 rules. It can be added as a race director's instruction before each race, though it wasn't included in the notes before the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend.

Hamilton went for another set of hard compound tyres. This brings the opportunity for an undercut. This worked brilliantly as Hamilton was over two seconds ahead of Sainz on the exit of Sainz’ pit. Verstappen was also pitting at the same time. This closed the gap between the Redbull and Mercedes.

The second pit for Max Verstappen put him in Lewis‘s firing line. Lap 32 Lewis with the DRS assist he managed to absolutely flyby Verstappen in the Red Bull. Verstappen didn’t fight it as he only has one person that he needed to beat. Then a late reaction from Ferrari pitting Leclerc meant that Hamilton has the net second place of the race. Absolute unbelievable drive from the fellow Brit.

We saw some very entertaining racing with three cars wide going into turn 14. I’m not sure it was worth the risk but it definitely looked cool. We all thank you for that.

On Lap 42 Carlos got his podium place back, taking Verstappen into turn 14. Those fresh tyres were definitely doing the job. Leclerc wasn’t too far behind hunting that Red Bull. On lap 48 Leclerc overtook Verstappen. This meant Ferrari are definitely in for the running of that constructors title with the McLarens in 6th and 7th.

George Russell had a great race. He was definitely on his own most of it but brilliant drive from him. That made it the most multiple race winners in a season ever. Hamilton had a phenomenal race going from 10th to 2nd place. It’s funny that performance comes after Toto’s comment of everyone having a shelf life. I think Hamilton more than proved that he still got it and is well within the expiry date this season. Due to the Verstappen finishing ahead of Norris. He is now officially 2024 World Champion. Congrats Max.

Summary

Overall it was a good race some awesome actual racing this week without the assistance of safety cars and virtual safety cars, just pure racing. The driver of the day is definitely Hamilton. In his words, he should’ve got pole in qualifying, His Q2 time proved that. He demonstrated to the world that he still in it to win it. The closer I see this table the more excited I am for next season. We saw glimpses during the mid-season. Next season will be phenomenal.

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