The Las Vegas Grand Prix 2023 was the 21st round of the 2023 F1 season, and took place at the Las Vegas Strip Street Circuit in Las Vegas, United States, during the weekend of the 16th to the 19th of November.
Max Verstappen won the race after starting in the 2nd position, followed by Charles Leclerc, who originally had the pole position, and Sergio Pérez completing the podium with an expectacular comeback, all the way from the 11th position of the grid.
Final results
Race evolution
Pit Stops
There were a total of 31 pit stops during the race.
The most popular pit stop windows were:
- Laps 14-17: 9 stops
- Laps 26-26: 10 stops
The fastest pit stop was Oscar Piastri's, stopping the clock at 20.535 seconds during his pit stop on lap 43, while the slowest one was was Valtteri Bottas's, who stopped the clock at 43.914 seconds, 23.379 seconds slower than Piastri, during his pit stop on lap 1.
These times include the time the driver spent going through the pit lane, as well as the actual time he stopped for the mechanics to work on his car.
Strategy
We saw a variety of options in terms of pit stop strategies during this race, however most drivers chose a 2 stops. Only Logan Sargeant, Alexander Albon, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc and Guanyu Zhou decided to try something different with a 1 stop strategy.
The race winner, Max Verstappen, was on a 2 stops strategy.
1 stop
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10Logan Sargeant
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7Alexander Albon
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-Daniel Ricciardo
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7Pierre Gasly
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12Esteban Ocon
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1Charles Leclerc
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2Guanyu Zhou
2 stops
-
-Fernando Alonso
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8Sergio Pérez
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10Valtteri Bottas
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6Carlos Sainz
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14Lance Stroll
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2Yuki Tsunoda
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6Nico Hülkenberg
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5Kevin Magnussen
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5George Russell
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1Max Verstappen
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8Oscar Piastri
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3Lewis Hamilton
Excluding those drivers who could not finish the race, those on a 1 stop strategy lost an average of 1.57 positions, while those on a 2 stops strategy gained 2 positions on average.
This difference in possitions gained, together with a deeper nalaysis of each strategy, reinforces the conclusion that a 2 stops strategy was the best option.
It is important to note that this might not always be the case for other races held at the Las Vegas Strip Street Circuit, as the conditions might change from year to year, in terms of wheel degradation, accidents, safety cars, etc.
Incidents
There race went on mostly with no incidents. Only 3 divers were involved in circumstances that were severe enough to prevented them from finishing the race.
These included, Yuki Tsunoda, who experienced issues with the gearbox on lap 46, Nico Hülkenberg, who suffered an engine malfunction on lap 45, and Lando Norris, who had to retire due to an accident on lap 2.
Gearbox
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Yuki TsunodaLap 46
Engine
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Nico HülkenbergLap 45
Accident
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Lando NorrisLap 2
Qualifying
Charles Leclerc dominated all the qualifying sessions and took the pole by 0.044 seconds, with a final lap time of 1:32.726. Carlos Sainz was right behind him, helping Ferrari score a one-two and monopolize the first line of the grid.
Track evolution
As the qualifying session went on, with the track rubbering in, and the drivers testing the limits of the grip of their cars, the times per lap dropped, and all of the drivers that took place in Q2 improved their times in this second session.
The Q3 is the time were all the remaining drivers put all their cards on the table, even those with a superior car who might have been managing their times in Q1 and Q2 push their cars to the limit in Q3. It therefore comes as no surprise that all of the drivers that took place in Q3 managed to improve their times in this last session.