Let’s get ready to rumble! Lewis Hamilton aiming to put on a show in Las Vegas bonanza – with celebs set to descend on Sin City for Formula One’s most glamorous race
Michael Buffer and brother Bruce will get us ready to rumble. The screaming siblings have been called in to perform induction duties at the Formula 1 night under the neon atmosphere of Sin City.
If half the hype is to be believed, Brad Pitt and Beyonce will be leading the celebrity and influencer ranks in the early hours of your British Sabbath. Adele has already been spotted in the paddock, which, located on the Las Vegas Strip, is clearly the flashiest and largest in the high-speed world.
Paris Hilton has been tipped to be here. This also applies to Sylvester Stallone. And Snoop Dogg.
A British star who is eager to put his name in the spotlight among his swinging friends is Lewis Hamilton, the most successful Grand Prix driver on American soil, who at least started promisingly in practice.
He was fastest in both Thursday sessions. In contrast, he finished last year’s race in seventh place.
In contrast, Max Verstappen was only 17th fastest on Thursday evening. But he only needs to score three points more than Lando Norris, the second best in training, to win the title this weekend. Hamilton’s teammate George Russell was third. A decent evening for the British.
Michael Buffer (left) and his brother Bruce (right) will join forces to introduce the stars of Formula 1 for Saturday’s celebrity-packed Las Vegas Grand Prix
Lando Norris is one of the F1 stars who will be welcomed as heroes at the Las Vegas GP
American rapper Snoop Dogg is one of many celebrities attending the race
The title fight is practically over. Norris needs to win virtually all the remaining games: here, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, and even then he would need Verstappen to implode. There is a greater chance that the Dutchman will land on Pluto.
A much-improved performance was already overdue for Hamilton, a stark fact underlined by his desperate performance on wet surfaces in Brazil a fortnight ago.
Mercedes wants to drag him along and last night team boss Toto Wolff largely shrugged off Hamilton’s gloomy half-threat that the rainy mess could be his last race for Mercedes. Presumably he would have returned to the podium at Ferrari next year.
“We all know Lewis wears his heart on his sleeve,” Wolff said. ‘It was such a bad experience for him that whole race weekend, and especially Sunday, that he said something (rash).
‘This time was probably particularly bad. But he and we as a team have continued to work together. There are still three races to go.
“He announced at the beginning of this year that he was joining Ferrari, and I am proud of how we have maintained professional relations and given him an instrument that is not good enough.”
Clearly there is a historic respect between boss and driver, forged during the salad days of both careers during the six world titles, but relations are not as cordial as they used to be. Hamilton’s surprise decision to leave saw to that.
Perhaps feeling slighted, Wolff recently said in an official Mercedes book that drivers (in Hamilton’s case, 39 years old) had ‘an expiration date’. Did this, however true, cause a rift that needed to be repaired?
Lewis Hamilton was fastest in both practice sessions at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, after finishing seventh last year
“Lewis and I speak, and we always have,” Wolff added. “It’s one sentence made public on a weekend where he’s unhappy with his driving, and one plus one makes it look bad.
“But one rule we’ve established is that we talk immediately and ask, ‘Why did you say that?’ or “What did you mean?” And that’s what we did.
“That was one sentence in a book and there are 99 sentences where I said that Lewis is the best driver of all time, and if we can give him a fast car he will be able to win and fight for world championships. . But we didn’t succeed.’
How Hamilton, a serial magician of dramatic magic, might fare next time a rabbit appears on the Strip.