At the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Max Verstappen won his 18th race of a record-breaking Formula One season, while competitor Lewis Hamilton only finished eighth due to some unfortunate circumstances.
After dominating the racecourse at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton made a blatant jab at rival Max Verstappen.
Due to a lack of luck on the track, the seven-time world champion ended up in eighth place. Despite everything, he had an amazing time in the race and had nothing but love for the new street circuit in Vegas.
“I’m really happy to have had a positive race and I’m really grateful that the race was so good,” his face lit up. “There was a lot of overtaking, but I’m not sure how exciting it was to watch. It was better than Baku.
“I honestly didn’t think the track would be this amazing, but as I completed more and more laps, I found that I truly enjoyed racing. Many excellent opportunities to overtake. I believe Vegas disproved everyone who was so pessimistic about the weekend, saying things like “it’s all about the show,” etc.”
It was obvious that the last comment was directed, at least partially, towards Verstappen even if he did not specifically address him. Clearly not to his liking, the Red Bull racer spent the majority of his weekend in Las Vegas trashing the event and the track as well as all the spectacle off it.
The quadruple world champion started whining even before any racing had taken place. “For me, you can all skip these things,” he stated following the event’s opening ceremony, which saw the drivers introduced to the audience on big boxes. It’s just you standing there looking like a clown; it has nothing to do with the singer.
“It’s a one percent sporting event and a 99 percent show… To be honest, not a lot of feelings. All I like to do is keep my attention on the performance aspect of things. Anyhow, I’m not fond of everything surrounding it. Naturally, I am aware that they are a part of it in some locations, but let’s just say that it isn’t in my best interest.
Later, he told reporters that he didn’t think the track was very interesting to drive on. Verstappen delivered the harshest criticism of everyone following qualification when he said, “Monaco is Champions League... this is National League.”
After a fierce battle with Charles Leclerc, who threatened to disqualify the Dutchman, Verstappen went on to win the race nonetheless. He later had second thoughts about the track and acknowledged that he had enjoyed racing there.
“You could see it was very powerful with the DRS around here,” he remarked. This meant that even if you had the lead, the person in back would still have a chance to catch up to you if he stayed in the DRS, which I believe produced a lot of exciting racing today. Therefore, it was undoubtedly a lot of fun.