The 2023 Las Vegas GP wasn’t a race to remember for Lewis Hamilton. After having an unexpected qualification on Friday, Hamilton’s race was jeopardized after he got hit by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz right after the lights went out in Nevada. However, the Mercedes man withheld from blaming his Ferrari rival for the incident.
Speaking on this, Hamilton said as per FormulaPassion, “I was hit full-on by Sainz at the first corner and then I tried not to hit the other cars in front of me. I lost several positions there. After that, I focused on moving up the group and I was doing well.”
THERE IS CONTACT AT TURN 1!
Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are all impacted and drop to the back of the grid 😬#LasVegasGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/TU8BuH8eZy
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 19, 2023
With this, he also added, “But then I passed Piastri on the inside and I don’t know exactly what happened. I heard a loud bang from behind, but I think it was a racing accident.”
The start of the race saw multiple cars down the grid and got really close to each other, which ultimately caused the collision. One of the main reasons for the cars hitting one another was presumably the low track temperature, which made it hard to keep balance, something Max Verstappen pointed out earlier. As Sainz hit Hamilton, it hampered the seven-time world champion’s result in the end.
The 38-year-old had to have an entire slow lap due to this and dive to pits earlier than it was necessary. In doing so, he lost chunks of time and in the end, it made a big difference in the pecking order. Hamilton finished the inaugural Las Vegas GP race, in P7, after starting from P10. However, it was a race that he liked throughout.
Lewis Hamilton was impressed by the Las Vegas GP
The recently concluded race in Nevada was the third United States race of this season and the first one in a long time in Las Vegas. Even though the race gained huge controversy for the wheel cover collision involving Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton liked the entire Grand Prix nonetheless.
Unlike Verstappen, who was very critical of the Sin City race due to its pomp and show, the Mercedes star looked at how Las Vegas prepared itself for the race and presented the city and its people with a fine race around midnight.
✌🏾🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/FfhdC18YfS
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) November 19, 2023
Hamilton called the race a success and it is now believed that the Las Vegas GP is here to stay for the years to come. However, the more pressing concern for the seven-time world champion and his team is to keep their P2 safe in the Constructors’ championship from Ferrari.
The result in Las Vegas brought the Prancing Horse really close to Mercedes, with just four points keeping them adrift. As things stand, Lewis Hamilton and Co. need to pull up their socks and give their best race so far against Ferrari, who are regarded as firm favorites for P2 in Abu Dhabi.
