Mercedes dominated the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend with an impressive one-two victory for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Russell took a dominant victory from pole position ahead of Hamilton, who managed to fight back from P10 on the grid after making two costly errors in qualifying.
Mercedes performed well in the cool Las Vegas nighttime conditions, having been quickest in every session leading up to the race. It is the team’s fourth win of the season in what has been a very inconsistent year, with them set to finish fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.
It will be Mercedes’ lowest finishing position in the last two years, having also finished third in 2022 and second in 2023. The team had such an impressive weekend that they decided not to highlight a potential rule break from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, during a pivotal strategic moment of the race according to journalist Michael Schmidt on the Formel Schmidt podcast.
Mercedes did not highlight Carlos Sainz issue to FIA because of ‘superior’ pace
Russell faced some early opposition from Charles Leclerc in the race, however, the Ferrari driver used up too much tyre life which forced him to pit earlier than expected.
Both Leclerc and Sainz were caught up in a team orders controversy when the Monogasque was told to let his teammate through before a pit stop call.
Ferrari was not ready to receive Sainz and instructed him to stay out at the last minute, leading to him crossing the pit entry line with Hamilton behind him. Mercedes had a clear view of a potential rule break, but chose not to highlight it to the stewards according to Schmidt.
“Normally there has to be a penalty for crossing the white line at pit entry, which gives a minimum of five seconds,” said Schmidt.
“Then I asked the chief strategist from Mercedes why didn’t you say anything, because they obviously saw it, and he said we were so superior we could hand out presents today! So that is why we didn’t report Ferrari.”
Why wasn’t Carlos Sainz investigated for the pit entry infringement?
The FIA’s rules regarding pit entry is governed by the International Sporting Code, Appendix L, Chapter 4, Article 4 (d).
This states that: “Except in cases of force majeure… any part of a tyre of a car entering the pit lane must not cross, in any direction, any line painted on the track for the purpose of separating cars entering the pit lane from those on the track.”
While Sainz’s tyres crossed the dividing line between the pit entry and the race track, the Ferrari driver did not commit a breach of the rules as he never entered the pit lane itself.
If he crossed the dividing line and still entered the pit lane, that would have likely resulted in a penalty.
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