It's Round 22 of the 2024 Formula One World Championship, and we're in Las Vegas for the opening weekend of the season's final triple-header. Get the thoughts of Lance and Fernando below following Saturday evening's action in the city that never sleeps.
After racing down the iconic Las Vegas Strip, Fernando and Lance finished the Grand Prix in P11 and P15 after qualifying P17 and P20.
Saturday round-up and reaction
Due to grid movements for other drivers, Lance started from P18 on the Medium tyre and Fernando began from P16 on Softs.
As the only driver starting on the Soft tyre, Fernando was able to make up places on the opening laps.
Early into the Grand Prix, Fernando switched to the Hard tyre. Soon after, Lance made his first pit at the end of Lap 9, also going onto Hards.
Both drivers opted for Hard tyres on their second pit, with Fernando coming in at the end of Lap 24 and Lance four laps later.
Fernando made good progress throughout the race, finishing just outside of the points positions.
#18 | Lance Stroll | Race
"It was a difficult race as I had no radio from the first lap so couldn't communicate with the team. We'd planned to stay on the medium tyre for slightly longer at the start of the race, but I could feel it dropping off quickly and wanted to get on the hard tyre. I just couldn't get that message through to the pit wall. It meant that, when I did come in, the team wasn't prepared for the stop and so it cost us about 20 seconds.
"We knew it was going to be a tough race, but I think P12 could have been possible without the radio issues causing a slow stop. As a team, we know where we need to improve the car but there's still a lot of work to do to get there.
"Finally, congratulations to Max [Verstappen] on his fourth Championship title – it's really well deserved."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Race
"The pace of the car was much better in the race for us and it was a nice surprise to be fighting in the points until the last few laps. The strategy was good, the pitstops were fast and I felt a little happier with the car in general. But there is no reward for eleventh position, and I think we deserved to score some points tonight.
"I'm looking forward to getting back into the car for Qatar as we try to find more performance. Also, I would like to congratulate Max [Verstappen] on winning his fourth Drivers' Championship, he has deserved to win this title."
Mike Krack | Team Principal
"We performed a bit better than we expected this evening in Las Vegas, but there was no reward for our efforts as Fernando just missed out on the final point after a strong performance. Almost everyone pitted twice, but we went quite aggressive with Fernando's strategy [starting on the Soft] and in the end he ran out of tyre life [on the Hard tyres]. This left him defenceless against [Sergio] Perez in the closing laps.
"Lance's race was more complicated because we had no radio communications with him for the entire race. It resulted in a big loss of time when he pitted on lap nine because there was no way for Lance to give prior warning that he was coming in. We had to manage the race via the pit board and couldn't recover the lost time. Even without the radio, Lance did a good job with tyre management and drove a strong race.
"We send our congratulations to Max [Verstappen] for his success this year and for securing his fourth world title this evening. Our attention now turns to Qatar next weekend – a totally different challenge in terms of layout and temperatures. We will keep positive, put this week's learning to good use, and try to come back stronger."
Next up
We're back on track on 29 November - 1 December for the penultimate race of the season, the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix.
Friday
Free Practice Three took place on Friday evening in Las Vegas, with Qualifying beginning at 22:00 local time. Temperatures were low again, and a slippery track surface made for tricky conditions.
Fernando and Lance began the weekend's third Free Practice by running a single lap on the Medium tyre. Halfway through the session, both drivers came back out on Softs.
Towards the end of FP3, Lance's AMR24 lost power on track due to an energy recovery system failure. The team worked hard on resolving the issue, meaning Lance was able to get out for the final few minutes of Q1.
Fernando and Lance qualified P17 and P20 respectively.
#18 | Lance Stroll | Qualifying
"It was a really good effort from the team to get my car ready for Qualifying after the ERS failure. We managed to get out on track for one lap, but it's tricky when the tyre temperatures aren't there, and I got held with a bit of traffic at Turn 12. I think it’ll be a tough day tomorrow. It's a race that requires a lot of tyre management and our car can be quite hard on tyres, but we’ll see what we can do."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Qualifying
"We have been uncompetitive the whole weekend so far and expected it to be a struggle heading into Qualifying. We have been struggling with the balance and managing the tyre temperatures in these colder conditions here in Las Vegas. We've had a few races of being uncompetitive now, but we need to improve and keep learning for next year. As we saw in last year’s race anything can happen, so we will be ready to capitalise on any incidents or Safety Cars that come up."
Mike Krack | Team Principal
"A tough evening under the lights in Las Vegas. We had an ERS failure on Lance's car which brought him to a stop on track in the final practice session. That put us under pressure to change the ERS pack in the short gap before qualifying. The mechanics did a fantastic job to get the car out for the final few moments of Q1. Lance only had time for one flying lap and he was always going to be up against it.
"Fernando's session was looking more promising until the cars ahead of him [Magnussen and Leclerc] caused a yellow flag which hampered his final effort. That’s the way the cards are dealt sometimes. We believe we had the pace to be higher up the grid today. Let's see what tomorrow brings. There's a long street race ahead of us."
Thursday round-up and reaction
Free Practice One took place on Thursday evening in Las Vegas, with low temperatures resulting in limited grip.
Fernando and Lance placed P7 and P12 in the weekend's first session after running the Medium and Soft tyre compounds.
Both drivers began Free Practice Two on Medium tyres to continue gathering important data. Midway through the session, they switched to Softs.
With 22 minutes to go, a Red Flag put a pause to FP2 running. When the session got back underway, Lance resumed on the Soft tyre and Fernando on Mediums.
#18 | Lance Stroll | Free Practice
"It's been a tricky day at track. This circuit can be a challenge to drive with big braking zones and close walls, and the cold temperatures mean it's hard to switch on the tyres. We got a good amount of running in though. It's too early to make predictions for the weekend, but we'll work through the data and make some improvements tonight."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Free Practice
"It wasn't easy out there with very cold temperatures tonight making it difficult to keep the tyres in the right window. We tried a few different car setup philosophies in both sessions. We have some work to do overnight to find more performance ahead of tomorrow."
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