Carlos Sainz had a disastrous free practice session in Las Vegas prior to qualifying. The Spaniard drove straight over a water valve pushed up through an exposed manhole cover. Sainz took some major damage from the bump and was forced to replace many components in his car.

Not only did the 2x Grand Prix winner get handed a controversial 10-place grid drop, Ferrari also spent a lot of money on repairing the car to get it running again. With FP2 and FP3 right after the session, Ferrari had to spend millions just to make the car functional. Team Principal Fred Vasseur pointed out that the budget cap did not allot a provision for a track issue to replace components, and the team would discuss compensation.

We have a lot of consequences on the financial side, on the sporting side, and even on the stock of spare parts, and on the budget side for sure it's not an easy one. There will be discussion. The decision, it's another thing.

Fred Vasseur said, as reported by motorsport.com

Ferrari got something out of the weekend though, as they gained some valuable points in the Constructors’ Championship. The battle for second in the teams’ title has been heated in the past few rounds, and the Las Vegas GP will bring Ferrari to just four points behind Mercedes. With only Abu Dhabi left on the calendar, the final race of the season will see action yet.

Ferrari strategic blunder during safety car cost the team victory, says Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc held a decent lead over Max Verstappen heading into the second stint on the race. Leclerc had the fresher tyres while Verstappen remained about 7 seconds behind him. The Monegasque driver had no competition out in front, and looked set for his sixth ever race win.

However, a very unfortunate safety car turned things upside down. Not knowing if their rivals would pit, Ferrari opted to keep track position and not pit Leclerc. Verstappen and Sergio Perez double-stopped and ended up right behind Leclerc on fresher tyres. Leclerc said the team got rather unlucky with the safety car.

We got a bit unlucky with the Safety Car, we didn't pit because we didn't know what the others would do.
We went for track position, and keeping first place with the older tyres was difficult, but we got second place.

Charles Leclerc said, as reported by racingnews365.com

Charles Leclerc has not won a single race since the Austrian Grand Prix in 2022. Leclerc got close a few times after that, most notably in the French Grand Prix immediately after, but none of those attempts came to fruition. The other Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz did manage a win in 2023 at the Singapore Grand Prix, assisted by Leclerc to achieve the victory.

In case you missed it:

• Lewis Hamilton laments missed podium at Las Vegas GP, blames the collisions for the failure
• David Beckham and Shaquille O’Neal LINK UP at Las Vegas GP

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