VIVA MAX IN LAS VEGAS

Max Verstappen took another win, today for the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, but this time he had to sweat more than usual to do it.

The Dutchman, with a penalty of 5 seconds, but also the fortunate circumstance of the safety car coming out in the middle of the race, managed to beat Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez.

Ferrari had an extremely fast race pace on the yellow tires, but Las Vegas was persistently against the odds of Italian team, so after maholes and luck turned their backs.

Sergio Perez is back on the podium, but loses second place again in the final lap.

The incidents contributed to a much more entertaining race than we expected at the Las Vegas City Circuit.

Verstappen started well and went completely ahead of Leclerc on the inside of the first corner, but overestimated the brakes on his Red Bull and forced Leclerc off the track.

That earned him a five-second penalty and, to make matters worse for him, he didn't have the powerful RB19 race pace, so when everyone expected him to be far ahead, the Monaco driver managed to keep pace and took the lead on lap 16, and the yellow tires on the Ferrari car worked great.

However, the exit of the safety car in the middle of the race "ruined" his chances as he stopped several laps early.

In the second half of the race, Max Verstappen and Red Bull had better race pace on the white tires and the champion crossed the finish line first, taking his 53rd F1 win, matching with Sebastian Vettel.

Charles Leclerc had a good fight with Perez and overtook him in the last lap to take second place. The Mexican has been losing position in the last moments to the finish line for two races already, although now not so close to a photo finish.

Esteban Ocon with Alpine was one of the drivers who benefited by the exit of the safety car, so he went from P16 at the start to fourth place, ahead of Lance Stroll who had one of his best races.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was sixth, with the Mercedes AMG drivers behind him. Fernando Alonso is in ninth place, ahead of Oscar Piastri who won the last but also the point for the fastest lap of the race.