Don Kennedy: Verstappen changes his tune after Las Vegas victory

Max Verstappen makes the crucial overtake on Charles Leclerc.

Las Vegas Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen went from feeling like a “clown” at the opening ceremony to singing Viva Las Vegas on the team car radio, albeit not quite like Elvis Presley, as he made his way back to parc ferme to celebrate victory number 18 and his third win in the States in what continues to be an unbelievable year for the triple world champion.

Ultimately, the event is being hailed as a success, but it certainly didn’t start out that way.

Forty-one years after Formula One cars last raced around the streets of Las Vegas, the “jury”, as in race fans and the drivers, was likely to bring in an unfavourable verdict after the first practice session was aborted when manhole covers popped up on the circuit nine minutes into the session.

Carlos Sainz, in the Ferrari, was unlucky to hit one at great speed, damaging the car’s suspension and chassis. It took five hours to repair and secure the manholes, meaning the second practice session started at 2am.

By that time, the organisers had decided in the interests of safety that fans would have to vacate their seats and the venue. Obviously, someone forgot most visitors to Vegas are night owls.

The upshot of the farcical start to the event was that Sainz was given a 10-place grid penalty for the race for having to change the car’s chassis, while the organisers made it clear there would be no refund for fans who had paid thousands of dollars for three-day passes and saw barely nine minutes of action.

The explanation from Formula 1 was that staff for security, transportation and hospitality would have been working too long if they had to look after fans until 4am or 5am. Instead of a refund, race-goers were offered $200 vouchers towards merchandise. Disgruntled fans have consulted a lawyer to bring a class action against F1 for compensation.

The second practice session went ahead and, by and large, the drivers seemed happy with the circuit.

Qualifying took place the next day without further incident. Verstappen was initially irritated about all the hype surrounding the event. He said after the showbiz-like opening on the Wednesday that it was “99 per cent show and 1 per cent sporting event” and that he felt like a “clown” standing on stage during the opening ceremony.

Verstappen celebrates victory number 18 with his crew in his Elvis-esque race overalls.

Four days later, as he stood on the top step of the podium dressed in race overalls that the late Elvis Presley could easily have worn on stage in one of his many Vegas shows back in the 1970s, Verstappen was hailing the race as “fun”. But it was not a complete backdown from his initial scathing comments about the event.

Despite his success in the race, he remained of the view that “the passion and emotion” of what he calls “proper racetracks” was missing in Las Vegas, but he had some praise for the track after he had to overcome a five-second penalty for forcing pole-sitter Charles Leclerc off the track as he overtook him at the first corner to win the race.

For a while, it looked like Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, might win the race after he passed Leclerc. But eventually, Verstappen got both of them. Perez was then set to finish second, but on the penultimate corner of the 50-lap race, he left the door open and Leclerc snatched second place.

Still, Perez’s third place was enough to guarantee he would be runner-up in the drivers’ championship, the first time Red Bull drivers have finished one-two in the championship.

The race was really about the first three, but behind them came some great performances from Esteban Ocon in the Alpine, who started 16th and finished fourth, and Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll, who started 15th and finished fifth.

Then came Sainz, who was possibly the unluckiest driver in the race given he got a grid penalty all because of an insecure manhole. Without that penalty, which most drivers and F1 personnel agreed was unfair, he could well have been on the podium. Ferrari had appealed against the penalty, but it was to no avail.

The stewards stated: “Notwithstanding the fact that the damage was caused by highly unusual external circumstances, Article 2.1 of the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations obliges all officials, including the stewards, to apply the regulations as they are written. Accordingly, the mandatory penalty specified under Article 28.3 of the Sporting Regulations must be applied.”

Sky sports commentators Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion, and former F1 driver Karun Chandhok both suggested the teams could have voted to say they didn’t want a penalty imposed. Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher said: “I find it unbelievable, almost outrageous, that Sainz will be punished twice.”

Sainz said: “The team communicated to me that I was taking a 10-place grid penalty for something [for which] I have no fault and the team has no fault. You can obviously understand how disappointed and in disbelief I am with the situation, and you will see me very unhappy this weekend.”

Sky sports commentator Martin Brundle was not impressed with the technicality of the steward’s ruling.

“There are hundreds of pages of international sporting code, technical regulations, sporting regulations,” he said.

“But nothing to say you can apply common sense, and common sense says that it’s not fair that Carlos Sainz had a penalty to carry in the race.”

There were some penalties dished out in the race itself, including Verstappen’s penalty for pushing Leclerc off at the first corner, which he was initially angered by.

“As soon as you are offline here, it’s super-low grip. And that’s what happened, I braked and there was no grip,” Verstappen explained.

“I didn’t mean to push Charles off the track, but I couldn’t slow down. I was sliding on four wheels wide at the time, also from adrenaline. I was not happy with the decision. But, looking back at it, that was probably the right call.”

Lando Norris in the McLaren also had a grip problem, crashing out of the race very early on. He was taken to hospital as a precaution but cleared of any injury.

Later in the race, Verstappen had to overtake George Russell in the Mercedes, who had started from third on the grid and was ahead due to a different strategy. Verstappen went down the inside of the 11th turn and Russell turned in, and there was contact and some minor damage to both cars. Russell received a five-second time penalty, so even though he crossed the line ahead of Sainz and teammate Lewis Hamilton, he dropped to an eighth-place finish and accepted he was at fault.

“The incident with Max was totally my fault. I didn’t see him; he was totally in my blind spot going around turn 11,” Russell candidly admitted. “I wasn’t really expecting the overtake there because we’ve got the big, long straight with the DRS afterward.”

But of course, Verstappen was keen to get back up front after serving his own time penalty, and as we have seen all year long, when Verstappen is on a charge, he is virtually unstoppable.

“Well, I always expected it to be a good race today,” he said, despite having felt like a “clown” before the event began.

“It’s just like I said before - long straights, low-speed corners, you don’t lose a lot of down forces, so that’s never been an issue.

“Today was fun, that’s the only thing I would say about it - I think today was fun, I hope everyone enjoyed it.”

He was not so sure about his singing, however, after team boss Christian Horner started playing the Viva Las Vegas on the team car radio.

“I mean, Christian put me on the spot, so I cannot leave him hanging, to be honest - I have to sing!” he joked after breaking into song.

“I definitely need some lessons, so I need to go to Geri [former Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell-Horner, Christian Horner’s wife] and book an appointment, I guess.”

Verstappen’s next appointment is the season finale in Abu Dhabi this weekend. Having equalled former Red Bull driver and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel’s record of 53 F1 victories, Verstappen can make it number 54 and 19 for the season by winning the last race. If he does, it will mean Red Bull will have won 21 out of 22 races, a new record.

Las Vegas has a contract to hold its event for 10 years. So, how did Horner rate it?

“I think it’s right up there,” Horner said. “I think the way that Vegas has embraced Formula 1 - the excitement that there is, this new sort of crowd that’s getting hooked into Formula 1 - is a great thing.”

Sources: F1.com.