A high top speed is crucial on the fast Las Vegas GP track!

🔴Alfa is betting on it through a low-load rear wing!

🔵RB: 3rd highest top speed despite a more loaded wing than most.

🟠McL was draggy despite the skinny wing! The car doesn't lose much drag in low-downforce trim.

Alonso gained over Norris in every straight, not just towards the braking point (where drag matters most) but also at the beginning of each one (which should indicate a lower PU mode by McL).

The difference does not seem huge, though: McL's drag problem is real.

📊Fastest Minisectors

🟢Alonso was quickest in the full-throttle sections following turns 9, 12 and 15! The energy deployment was strong➡️higher engine mode?

🔵RB: fastest in the two DRS zones (and only there!)

🔴Ferrari: quick all-around

Who'll get pole?🤔

Long Runs from FP2!

Ferrari/Aston/RB/AT/Alpine pushed more at the end of the stint

🔴Ferrari had the best overall pace, but 🔵RB was close despite >15laps old tyres!

🟠McL was uncompetitive

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🔵RB has less drag than 🟠McL➡️can run a much more loaded wing (check the difference!) AND have a competitive top speed.

-Without DRS, top speed is similar (321 vs 322)
-With DRS, though, the drag penalty is mitigated and RB gets faster! (347 vs 340).

🗒Notes on Las Vegas GP Quali!

🔴Ferrari’s only rival was a manhole 😭

‘Revenge of Backmarkers’: Williams/Haas/Alfa were competitive at the expense of HAM/PER/McL.

🟠McL is quick on most tracks, except in low-drag trim: drag reduces less than downforce.

Hamilton and Perez missed Q3 also due to a questionable choice made by their teams (having them doing the attempt relatively early when the track still had to reach the best conditions).

Each car's performance explained💡

⬆️Up: better top speed
➡️Right: better overall performance

🔵RB/🟢Merc(!!!)↗️: very efficient🚀
🔴Ferrari➡️: excellent drag-downforce balance👌
🟢Aston⬇️: competitive despite high drag👍
🟠McL↙️: terrible drag and performance👎

The fact that they were able to reduce the car's drag significantly without losing much downforce is encouraging for Mercedes.

The same can't be said for McLaren.

Top Speeds! Las Vegas Gp Quali:

Williams/Alfa/Alpine reached Q3 thanks to their straightline speed!🚀

🟠McL and 🟢Aston, instead, suffered from high drag. 📉

🟢Mercedes's top speed was competitive: that's rare! A good sign.

Ferrari's high-downforce didn't reduce too much drag!

How did Leclerc beat Verstappen to pole?💡

>He gained 0.2s by braking later into turn 1
>VER then recovered the gap in Sector 2 (turns 6-12)
>LEC accelerated better out of turn 12, increasing his gap
>He did the same out of turn 15, increasing the gap to 0.378s!

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Tyres were CRAZY COLD into the turn 14 braking point!

🥶

Cars started the main straight with already cold tyres (50-60°C).

Temperatures dropped 25°C throughout the long straight! They were over 50°C colder than the MINIMUM working temperature at the braking point!

📊Fastest Minisectors

🔴 LEC got pole, but was fastest in less than 1/4 of the lap! He was mighty in turns 1-2, out of t12 and braking into t14.

🔵 VER was quickest in several corners.

🟢 Mercedes' engine was powerful: RUS gained after turns 4, 9, 12, and 16!

Ferrari was the fastest car in every sector!👌

Leclerc was fastest in🔴Sector 1 and 🔵Sector 2 (the slowest one).

Sainz was quickest in 🟡Sector 3 (the fastest one).

Their three purple sectors would have produced a 1.32.453 laptime (Leclerc's pole was 1.32.726).

In a track where engine power is crucial, the first two rows will include four different engines!
1)Ferrari
2)Honda
3)Mercedes
4)Renault

After almost ten years, these hybrid Power Units have reached an excellent degree of convergence
That's 'natural' BoP for you!

Race Pace

🔴 Ferrari had the pace: LEC was just 0.19s/lap slower than VER despite doing one less stop. He matched PER.

🟢 Merc and 🟠 McL had great pace but didn't capitalise due to crashes.
🔵 OCO got P4 with the 8th fastest pace.

STR was 0.37s/lap quicker than ALO!

Gap to 🔴 Leclerc

LEC battled with the RBs for almost 40 laps! He had slightly better pace than VER on the Mediums (first stint), but VER was clearly quicker on newer Hards.

He matched PER on 5-laps older Hards, though!

At the end, the 🟢 Mercedes had great pace.

Best Sectors:

🔵RB clearly fastest in 🟥Sectors 1 (Medium speed) and 🟦 2 (Slowest one)

🟢Surprise: Mercedes was quickest in 🟨Sector 3, consisting of two long straights! The frequent tows helped them, but the car had little drag too!

🟠McL had potential!😢

Tyre Strategies🛞
(First-lap pits not shown)

The SC turned Leclerc's 5-lap advantage into a 5-lap deficit

Starting on Softs was suboptimal: Tsunoda started struggling and had to pit after just 9 laps!

Haas had the worst wear: just 11-13 laps on the first set!

Top Speed during the two overtakes by Leclerc:

+16km/h vs. VER
+22km/h vs. PER

Perez ran a more loaded DRS plane (check out the red line)➡️He was advantaged in the twisty sector 2, but he struggled to overtake and defend!

Brilliant driving by LEC.

Las Vegas GP is officially the coldest race this season (beating Baku)

Still, weather forecasts overestimated the 'coldness'! (Prediction: 9deg)
⬇️
Tyre graining was present but not severe, and the Hards performed well.

Air temp was very stable: just 0.3°C(0.5°F) variation!

Sainz reached 366km/h during the Las Vegas GP 🤯

Tiny wings➕High altitude➕Long Straight➕Frequent tows and DRS➡️Mind-blowing top speeds! 🚀

HAM reached 364km/h: reducing the ride height got rid of the high drag Mercedes faced in Brazil.👌📈

This is impressively close to the all-time record! (372.54 km/h by Bottas in Mexico 2016).

In 2016 cars were 20cm narrower and had much thinner tyres (both factors reduce drag significantly), and Mexico track has a much higher altitude, which significanty reduced the air density.

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