Verstappen wins the Las Vegas Grand Prix for the 18th time this season

Viva Las Vegas! The race was exciting, fun and very hectic! We really had to work hard for it today, there was a lot of overtaking and racing which made it really fun. It was a tough start on the mediums but once we went on to the hard tyre it was better. The five second penalty at the start was unfortunate, I really didn't mean to push Charles off, we both braked late in to turn one and there was no grip. We had a lot more pace in the car after we pit for hard. I also had a damaged front wing so I definitely lost a lot of downforce with that, it was still driveable so we opted to carry on. We were pushing flat out to the end and on the final lap, I tried to help Checo to give him a bit of slip stream, it’s a shame we couldn’t convert the one-two in this race but it’s great that we’ve secured the one-two in the Championship this year. Now we head to the final race in Abu Dhabi.

It was a very intense race from the start, damaging my front wing, thinking everything was over but then the pace on the hard during the first stint was tremendous and that really brought us back into the race. The safety car came at the right time for us and from then on we were looking good, I overtook Charles and I thought I was going to pull away from him but we were carrying a little bit too much wing on the car and I couldn’t. It’s a shame I lost second place but we were lacking a little bit of top speed. I am very proud to secure the Team’s first one-two in the Drivers’ Championship tonight, it’s a massive piece of history for us. It has been a very intense year, the highs in the year have been extremely high but the lows have been super low. As a driver and a human being to come back from those tough moments, is what I take the most from this season. Mentally it was very tough at times but we have managed to overcome all those issues and get the job done. Thanks to my Team and everyone who supported me.

I was coming into the race optimistic. We knew we’d struggle with the race start and restarts today because we missed something here this weekend regarding tyres and getting them to work on this slippery surface when it’s cold and they’re new. We thought we could get them working after a couple of laps and get back onto the pack, but we never really got there. It’s not an excuse, it’s just something we lacked and struggled with this weekend and something we’ll be looking into in our post-race analysis. There were a few cars fading at the end of the race, so we had a little more pace than them, but we still weren’t a top 10 car. We’re racing again next week at a medium downforce circuit, so I’m optimistic going into it. It’s a quick turnaround and a different story, so the next couple of days are about resting and recovering. 

We split the setup between our two cars and gambled a little with my car, but it didn’t work in the end. I had a clean start today and was happy I kept out of trouble, which allowed us to gain quite a few positions, but unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace to finish in the top 10. We’re happy we challenged ourselves because we knew we’d struggle with our pace, so we had to try something, and I liked the challenge. Today, it didn’t pay off, but in the end, it didn't matter as we had to retire my car. Looking ahead to Abu Dhabi, we’ll still aim to score points. Anything can happen, so we’ll try our best.