2nd place guaranteed in the championship
The good news for Sergio Perezat the end of a pyrotechnic Las Vegas GP, is the fact of having arithmetically secured second place in the 2023 world rankings. In Abu Dhabi Lewis Hamilton will not have the opportunity to mock the Mexican in any way, who thus obtains his best result ever in the World Championship and gives the Red Bull team the first double in the championship. However, the final third place achieved on the Strip circuit has a bitter aftertaste for Checo, despite the good comeback made from the 11th starting position.
In fact, the second Red Bull driver, thanks to the Safety Car caused by the contact between Max Verstappen and George Russell, managed to get back in contention for victorythen finding himself dueling with the same Dutch champion and above all with a fantastic Charles Leclerc, voted driver of the day and the only true rival of the RB19s on the very fast American track. Perez led the race for several laps, but then found himself succumbing twice in a direct duel with the red Monegasque.
He never gave up 💪
Charles Leclerc’s incredible last-lap overtake on Sergio Perez for second place! 🤯😮💨#LasVegasGP #F1 @Scuderia Ferrari @Charles_Leclerc pic.twitter.com/xHWOCghqwA
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 19, 2023
The challenge with Leclerc
The second overtaking was the most difficult to digest because it arrived, as happened with Alonso at Interlagos, during the last lap of the race and even though Max Verstappen was trying to help him by providing the slipstream. “I was quite surprised by Charles – commented Perez at the end of the Grand Prix, referring not only to Leclerc’s decisive maneuver, but to his entire performance in the race – their speed was really high especially towards the end and this meant that we were not fast enough“.
“I was going so fast behind Charles that when I passed him I thought I would be able to outdistance him – concluded the 2023 world vice-champion – but I did not succeed. I got stuck there and that meant I lost position to Charles and also to Max“.
#Perez #loses #sprint #Leclerc #surprised #FormulaPassion