The spotlight was on Lando Norris in the Las Vegas Grand Prix, as he fought to keep his championship hopes alive against Max Verstappen. For the Briton to stay in the title hunt, he needed to finish ahead of Verstappen and outscore him by three points.
However, McLaren CEO, Zak Brown caught fans by surprise when he was heard cheering not just for his driver but for Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. While the hope of keeping the title battle alive ended for Norris as Verstappen was ahead of him in the race, McLaren still had a lot at stake in the constructors’ standings.
The Woking-based squad entered the weekend ahead of Ferrari, but the Scuderia seemed set to close that gap in Vegas as they had better race pace.
However, Ferrari’s progress was slowed down as Hamilton, in a much faster car, drove a stunning race starting from P10, overtaking both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc on his way to a second-place finish, costing six points for the Italian team.
“Go Lewis, go!” Brown exclaimed as per a post shared on X (formerly Twitter), as the seven-time world champion hunted down the Ferraris.
Zak Brown says Lewis looks to have the pace right now, and adds “go Lewis, go” as the Mercedes drive could take points away from Ferrari in the constructors
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) November 24, 2024
Despite Hamilton halting Ferrari’s charge in the constructors’ championship, Ferrari can still make it all the way to win the title.
A three-way battle for the Constructors’ championship?
After the Las Vegas GP, McLaren is now just 24 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship. Ferrari had a great race in Las Vegas last year and arrived with high expectations this weekend, but Mercedes, almost surprisingly, had the fastest car throughout the weekend.
We maximized the points as a team, but I was expecting us to be more competitive. Mercedes was clearly the faster car, but positive to close the gap to McLaren. We’ll fight to keep the Constructors’ battle open until the end. Now Qatar.
https://t.co/sLxXEySiKQ
–#CarlosSainz pic.twitter.com/J1FtMzMxbC— Carlos Sainz (@Carlossainz55) November 24, 2024
The Italian outfit still has two more races to close the gap to McLaren and the recent upswing in their form shows they are capable of closing it down. At the same time, Red Bull, who slipped to third place in the Constructors’ Championship a few races ago, could still disrupt the battle between McLaren and Ferrari.
Red Bull’s recently found pace makes them a wildcard in the final two races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi and could influence the battle for the championship while also reclaiming second place.
