Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Las Vegas Grand Prix

Photo by John Locher from AP Photo

Formula 1 finally made it’s debut in Vegas, and I, a natural born skeptic, thought it was going to be an absolute snoozefest.

Not just because of the racing, but because the race STARTED at 1:00 A.M. my time.

But alas, I stayed up and watched.

(The first half).

And it was a really fun race!

Here are the winners and losers from Sin City.

Losers

5. Nico Hulkenberg

There really weren’t many “losers” from this GP, so we have to scrape the bottom of the barrel and that means the cars that simply have to retire for mechanical failures.

It sucks.

4. Yuki Tsunoda

And there’s Yuki. Same thing has Hulkenberg above.

Wasn’t able to finish the grand prix.

3. Williams

Williams straight line speed, and incredible laps from their drivers, put them 5th and 6th on the grid.

But the race, unfortunately, is longer than just one lap, and that’s where Williams weekend went wrong, with Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant not getting any points with what looked to be a promising weekend.

2. Carlos Sainz

Carlos’ car was destroyed in first practice due to a manhole cover not welded down properly and it damaged his engine.

That sucks!

What’s even worse is that FIA rules meant he didn’t have his engine penalty forgiven, so his 2nd place qualifying actually threw him down to 12th.

And he was completely faultless.

1. Lando Norris

Lando’s overall season can not be ignored. He was amazing! All year!

But this weekend was a complete and utter disaster.

Poor qualifying, and a weird spin (likely due to lack of tire temperatures) that meant he crashed out early.

Forgettable for sure.

Winners

5. Lance Stroll

After a great weekend for Stroll at Brazil, his qualifying in Vegas was horrible.

His race? Outstanding.

Stroll moved all the way up to finish 5th in the race and get a huge chunk of points.

That confidence is slowly, slowly starting to come back for the Canadian.

4. Esteban Ocon

Speaking of an outstanding race, Esteban Ocon had a few fantastic overtakes during the race, including one on his teammate, and the Frenchmen ends up finishing 4th in the Las Vegas.

3. Max Verstappen

Oh right.

Max won again.

2. Sergio Perez

Checo not only came up from 11th to finish 3rd in the race, but he did something that actually shocked me.

With Checo clinching 2nd in the championship, this is the first time Red Bull Racing has ever finished 1st and 2nd in the championship.

That’s pretty stunning, especially with all of their years of dominance in the early 2010s with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

1. Charles Leclerc

The pole was great. The race itself was great.

But the late overtake Leclerc had to get by Perez and finish 2nd in the race might have been the best overtake of the season.

For a year with nothing but bad luck for Leclerc, that was excellent to see.