It wasn’t a disastrous night for McLaren in Las Vegas, as Ferrari failed to capitalize on their superiority in Nevada. The Papaya team thanks Mercedes, mitigates the damage, and Oscar Piastri smiles in the championship fight.
Despite a lackluster performance in the latest U.S. round of the calendar, McLaren owes gratitude to Mercedes for holding off the Reds from Maranello. In what was considered—on paper—the most favorable of the remaining races for Ferrari, the team recovered less ground than expected against their British rivals. At the checkered flag of the Las Vegas GP, the championship leaders’ cushion over Ferrari shrinks from 36 to 24 points, leaving Oscar Piastri optimistic as he looks ahead to Qatar.
“We knew Las Vegas would probably be a tougher race for us. We expected a strong Ferrari,” admitted the Australian from the Woking-based team.
Although the Prancing Horse did narrow the gap, the 2001-born driver believes the weekend in the U.S. went better than anticipated.
McLaren sits at 608 points, Ferrari at 584. Heading into the Losail weekend, Andrea Stella’s team holds a 24-point advantage over Fred Vasseur’s squad. “It’s obviously not ideal that they gained a few points on us, but it could have been worse.” Upon arriving in Nevada, most experts had pegged Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari as the clear favorites for the Las Vegas race. However, Mercedes, an outsider more comfortable on the cold American asphalt, disrupted Ferrari’s plans, softening the blow for Oscar Piastri and his team.
Now the focus shifts to Qatar: “We’ll see what happens; it will certainly be a tight battle until the very end, but we hope Losail will be a favorable stop for us.”
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