(Reuters) – Formula One statistics for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, round 22 of the 24-race season:
Lap distance: 6.201km. Total distance: 309.961km (50 laps)
2023 pole position: Charles Leclerc (Monaco) Ferrari one minute 32.726 seconds
2024 winner: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull
Race fastest lap: Oscar Piastri (Australia) McLaren 1:35.490
Start time: 0600 GMT Sunday/2200 local Saturday
LAS VEGAS
Las Vegas held two championship races in 1981 and 1982, both title-deciding season-enders going under the name of the Caesars Palace Grand Prix, before the Nevada city returned to the calendar last year.
Australian Alan Jones won in 1981 with Williams and Italian Michele Alboreto in 1982 with Tyrrell.
The 17-turn track is the second longest on the calendar and includes the famed Strip and central landmarks. Average speeds are around 240kph, with cars hitting more than 350kph and conditions cold at night.
The race is the third of the year in the United States.
Most teams went for a one-stop race last year, starting on mediums and switching to hards with plenty of overtaking opportunities.
CHAMPIONSHIP
Red Bull’s Verstappen will clinch his fourth successive title in Las Vegas if McLaren’s Lando Norris fails to score three points more than him.
Verstappen leads Norris by 62 points with a maximum 60 remaining after Las Vegas — two grands prix in Qatar and Abu Dhabi (50 points), two race fastest laps (two points) and one sprint (eight points).
Put simply, if Verstappen beats Norris he takes the title. He will also do so if Norris is not in the top eight.
The constructors’ title cannot be won this weekend. McLaren are 36 points clear of Ferrari with 103 remaining after Las Vegas.
WINS
Seven-times world champion Hamilton has a record 105 career victories from 353 starts, Verstappen has 62 from 206.
Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes have all won races this season.
Seven drivers have triumphed, the most in a single season since 2012 when there were eight
Verstappen has won eight times this season. McLaren and Ferrari five each and Mercedes three.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz won in Melbourne and Mexico, McLaren’s Lando Norris in Miami, the Netherlands and Singapore, Leclerc in Monaco, Italy and Texas, Mercedes’s George Russell in Austria, Hamilton in Britain and Belgium, and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in Hungary and Azerbaijan.
Ferrari top the all time list with 248 F1 wins, McLaren have 188, Mercedes 128 and Red Bull 121.
POLE POSITION
Verstappen has had eight poles this year but last did so in Austria in June.
Leclerc took pole in Monaco, Belgium and Azerbaijan. Russell was fastest in Canada and Britain. Norris took the top spot in Spain, Hungary, the Netherlands, Italy, Singapore, Texas and Brazil. Sainz was on pole in Mexico.
Hamilton has a record 104 poles, his most recent in Hungary in July 2023.
PODIUMS
Verstappen has 111 career podiums, Hamilton a record 201.
Verstappen has been on the podium 13 times this season, Norris 12, Leclerc 11, Piastri and Sainz seven each.
MILESTONE
Red Bull have taken 64 successive top 10 finishes, equalling the second longest scoring streak in F1 history.
Verstappen’s fastest lap in Brazil was his team’s 99th since their first at Silverstone in 2009.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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