WE WERE enjoying a few cocktails upstairs in the Paddock Club as the opening ceremony unfolded.

Kylie Minogue and John Legend played. Formula One does not normally do son et lumiere preludes to the more visceral attraction of the track action, and rightly so, it being motor racing rather than Glastonbury. But, no matter what Max Verstappen may say, I certainly had no objection to the 30-minute concert. The Strip, and its hotels that are the central backdrop magic of the weekend, rippled in the televisual background. When Las Vegas last entered the diary in 1982, in the Caesars Palace parking lot, it took place during the day, the ambient heat registering 98.8°F (37.1°C). But the drama provided by a race under lights is something else altogether, even if you have to be up at 6am in Britain to watch it on Sunday.

STILL, the script for Apple TV+’s F1 movie is uncompleted, a delay hindered by the recent writers and actors strike in Hollywood. Lewis Hamilton, who is a key player but without any particular qualifications in the department, says he will spend time polishing the lines in December. Brad Pitt, star and producer, is slated to be in Las Vegas this weekend, one of a number of the glitterati in town.

IT HAS been more temperate here — 13.9°C as I write at 11.40pm — than some forecasters suggested for Nevada in November. That makes it easier for tyre suppliers Pirelli, who are deploying their three softest, and thus grippiest, compounds in case of the mercury falling. They will also increase pressures to combat conditions the long, tyrecooling straight — the Strip — does nothing to relieve.