{"id":27118,"date":"2024-11-24T07:32:31","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T12:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=27118"},"modified":"2024-11-24T07:32:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T12:32:31","slug":"hamilton-vegas-win-would-have-been-a-breeze-with-better-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/11\/24\/hamilton-vegas-win-would-have-been-a-breeze-with-better-qualifying\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton: Vegas win would have been “a breeze” with better qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton<\/a> believes he could have easily won the Las Vegas GP. The 7-time Champion regrets his scrappy qualifying session, which he identifies as detrimental to his chances of victory.<\/p>\n

Hamilton frustrated to miss out after exceptional Mercedes performance<\/h2>\n

After a series of difficult races since their COTA updates<\/a>, Mercedes bounced back in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

The W15<\/a> came back to life in the cooler conditions of Nevada, establishing itself as the fastest car from Practice 1.<\/p>\n

George Russell capitalised on the team’s superior pace by converting Pole Position to victory.<\/p>\n

For Lewis Hamilton, the Las Vegas GP was largely a recovery drive. The 39-year-old spent most of his race making up places after starting from 10th on the grid.<\/p>\n

Hamilton managed to close the gap on Russell in the closing stages – and he believes he was more than fast enough to win:<\/p>\n

“If I’d done my job yesterday, it would have been a breeze today,” <\/em>he told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

\"\"
2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix, Saturday – Jiri Krenek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“But it’s ok. I had fun coming from 10th. The team did a fantastic job.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We don’t know why we were so quick this weekend, but that’s the best the car’s ever felt. So I’m grateful to have been a part of getting it to that point.<\/em><\/p>\n

“If the car drives like that in the next couple of races, then I think we’ll be in a good spot to challenge the guys up front.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Mercedes can be extremely satisfied with their 1-2 finish, although it ultimately won’t impact their position in the standings.<\/p>\n

If the W15 can perform at a similar level in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, James Allison’s technical team will enter the winter break with huge confidence about their 2025 package<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Lewis Hamilton, this weekend was another frustrating chapter to his final year with Mercedes.<\/p>\n

However, the British driver will be hugely optimistic about Ferrari’s pace<\/a> – which is likely to carry over into next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton believes he could have easily won the Las Vegas GP. The 7-time Champion regrets his scrappy qualifying session, which he identifies as detrimental to his chances of victory. Hamilton frustrated to miss out after exceptional Mercedes performance After a series of difficult races since their COTA updates, Mercedes bounced back in Las Vegas. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":27119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[465,2393,121],"class_list":["post-27118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-news","tag-las-vegas-gp","tag-mercedes"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}