Charles Leclerc won the fan vote for Driver of the Day at the 2023 Las Vegas GP after a dramatic last lap overtake to take second place.
The Ferrari driver started the race from pole position, but was overtaken by Max Verstappen in an aggressive move at the start which saw the Dutchman handed a five-second time penalty.
While Leclerc managed to keep the lead in the middle stages of the race as the Red Bull served the time penalty in the pits, he was unable to fend off a charging Verstappen despite damage to the champion’s front wing from a collision with George Russell.
And despite losing second in the late stage of the grand prix to Sergio Perez, Leclerc launched a daring dive on the final lap to retake the runners up spot, with the Mexican once again beaten to the line by milliseconds as he was by Fernando Alonso in Brazil.
Verstappen wins again
Verstappen had to fight for his 18th win of the season under the Las Vegas lights,but both damage and a penalty failed to curtail the flying Dutchman as he won the first race in Sin City for 40 years.
Elsewhere Russell managed to recover from his incident with Verstappen to finish fourth at the line, but a 5-second time penalty from the crash dropped the Mercedes back to eighth, with Esteban Ocon taking P4 for Alpine.
Lance Stroll recovered from a qualifying penalty and starting back in 19th to finish fifth on the road, ahead of Carlos Sainz after his harsh penalty from his FP1 nightmare in sixth, and Lewis Hamilton in ninth.
Fernando Alonso was ninth for Aston Martin after a spin at the first corner on Lap 1 with cold tyres and suffering damage from a slow speed collision with Valtteri Bottas, and Oscar Piastri taking the final points spot in 10th.
