Las Vegas Grand Prix: F1 – live

Lap 37/50: Rhianna watches on from the Ferrari dugout as Verstappen moves past Leclerc and into first-place!

The Red Bull garage tells Perez to stay with Verstappen, looking at trying to fashion a one-two, but he’ll first have to get past that Ferrari.

Lap 36/50: Perez has gone from leading Leclerc to first falling behind the Monégasque and now being overtaken by Verstappen! First to third in an instant.

Lap 35/50: Leclerc has re-taken the lead! Perez is seemingly caught napping and the Ferrari moves past the Red Bull!

Lap 34/50: Perez leads from Leclerc, followed by Verstappen, Piastri, Ocon, Gasly, Albon, Stroll, Russell, and Sainz.

Lap 33/50: Verstappen, having served his five-second penalty already, is now up into third-place, with a Red Bull one-two coming into focus.

The two Alpine cars are doing battle for fifth, with Ocon now moving past Gasly.

Lap 32/50: Perez finally overtakes Leclerc! With nothing but clear track in front of him, the Red Bull man needs to get a move on.

Versappen gets his overtake and moves into fourth behind Piastri, who is going very fast but is going to be forced to pit at some point because he’s only raced on two hards so far.

Lap 31/50: Verstappen is all over the back of Gasly but the Alpine driver sees him off for now.

Leclerc is holding off Perez, for now.

Lap 30/50: Despite all the bang, crash, wallop that’s been on show thus far, there’s still been only one retirement thus far in the race in the form of Norris.

Leclerc, Perez, Piastri, Gasly, Verstappen, Ocon, Albon, Stroll, Russell, and Sainz is the top ten.

Lap 29/50: Piastri moves up into third with an audacious overtake, moving into a podium place behind Leclerc and Perez.

Lap 28/50: The safety car is in and it’s Leclerc (one stop) who leads from Perez (2), Gasly (1), Piastri (1), Verstappen (2), Ococ (1), Stroll (2), Albon (1), Russell (2), and Sainz (2).

Russell has been given a five-second penalty for his clash with Versappen.

Lap 27/50: There’s another safety car out there to help deal with debris and Perez darts into pit lane straight away to take advantage for a second time – re-emerging in second on hard tyres.

Verstappen is also in there for his second stop – the safety car possible coming out at a very good time for him – and comes out in fifth place. But the stewards are investigating his collision with Russell.

All the leaders are on the hard tyres down to Guanyu in 13th place.

Lap 26/50: Verstappen is asking for an update on his tyre and front wing, told to stay out there by his team. Replays show he darted up Russell’s inside and there was some decent contact as they prepared to head up the Strip.

Lap 25/50: How far can Perez go after his early stop? He’s still well out in front at the moment, ten seconds clear of Leclerc, who has gone past Stroll.

Verstappen goes past Russell but there’s contact! There looks to be damage to that Red Bull!

Lap 24/50: Sainz, Russell, and Verstappen are all tooing-and-froing in the battle for fourth, fifth, and sixth.

Sainz then loses two places in one straight! Russell moves into fourth, Verstappen fifth, and the Ferrari is now sixth.

Lap 23/50: Vertappen finds himself in sixth behind Russell as we approach the halfway point.

Perez maintains his lead, followed by Stroll, Leclerc, and Sainz.

Lap 22/50: Leclerc has come out of pit lane in third position, just about ten seconds behind Perez but needing to get past the Aston Martin of Stroll.

Lap 21/50: Leclerc comes into the pits so the Red Bull of Perez takes the lead.

Lap 20/50: Ocon comes into the pits, putting on a set of hard tyres.

Leclerc is getting some reminders from his pit to look after his tyres, hinting at a one-stop strategy.

Lap 19/50: Leclerc has a lot of space between him and Perez, but the latter has already pitted during the safety car period.

Lap 18/50: Leclerc leads, followed by Ocon and Perez. Stroll in fourth, followed by Sainz, Guanyu and Russell. Verstappen ninth and Gasly rounds out the top ten.

Most of these cars are yet to pit.

Lap 17/50: Several cars are taking the opportunity to pit, with Hamilton forced in to replace a punctured tyre after failing to overtake Piastri – losing several positions before he can get into pit lane.

Leclerc re-takes the lead!

Lap 15/50: Leclerc is gaining on Verstappen — the Ferrari right on the back of the Red Bull around the Vegas course and demonstrating that its speed in qualifying was no fluke.

Lap 14/50: It’s a good night for Alpine, Gasly is pushing hard to move into third while Ocon has gone from 16th at lights out and is now all the way into sixth!

Sargeant in his Williams is starting to struggle, he’s fallen into ninth position.

Lap 13/50: Sainz is being told that he needs to cool the car down as he gets past Ricciardo and into 14th. He’s been surrounding by a lot of traffic at the back of the field.

Verstappen still leads from Leclerc but he’s not moving away from the Ferrari – it’s still less than a two second gap.

Lap 12/50: Hamilton starting to make his way through the field, trying to overhaul Piastri for eighth position as Magnussen slips to tenth, overtaken on the outside.

Perez moves past Hulkenberg for twelfth.

Lap 11/50: The cars that have already been forced to pit are staging their own little battle toward the rear of the field, with Sainz moving past Alonso into 16th.

Lap 10/50: An email! Hugh with his thoughts on Verstappen:

“Classic Verstappen move. Go too fast into the corner in order to get your nose ahead and then run the other car off the track because you obviously can’t make the corner. Then claim, “I was ahead!”

“No Max, you’re not ahead if your apex speed is far too much to actually make their corner. You’re just saying “Get out of the way of me going off the track and not making the corner or take a crash”. All the drivers know what he’s doing and it’s not hard driving, it’s cheating.”

Lap 9/50: Verstappen gets the heads up that he’s got a five-second penalty to serve. Already two seconds clear, he says to give them his regards as he sets another fastest lap.

Piastri is now into eighth… no, Magnussen has it back.

Lap 8/50: Out in front, Verstappen sets a new fastest time of the race so far at 1:40:142.

Lap 7/50: Verstappen still leads and won’t have to give back the positon but the word is coming through that he’s being hit with a five second penalty next time he pits. He’s followed by Leclerc, Russell, Gasly, Albon, and Sargeant.

Piastri has done very well to move up to 10th from his initial start of 18th, into the points.

After a couple of safety car laps, drivers are working very hard to try and bring their tyres up to temperature.

Lap 6/50: The safety car has come back in and we are racing again in Vegas.

Verstappen’s team letting him now that the stewards are not going to make him hand the place back… I think? They also said they’ll leave that with him.

Coverage is suggesting that he should give it back but one doesn’t imagine he’ll be in a hurry to do so.