If the groundbreaking, F1 promoted race around the Strip is earmarked as the series' very own Superbowl, then it already served up a halftime show to match a day before on-track proceedings even start. F1 pulled out all the stops to produce a ceremony befitting its entertainment driven host city, featuring appearances by Kylie Minogue, John Legend, Journey, Keith Urban, Steve Aoki, Thirty Seconds to Mars, J Balvin and DJ Tiesto, as well as performers from Cirque du Soleil.
Drones performed a synchronised overhead ballet to welcome the main grandstand audience - tickets went for a cool $165 for the 30-minute show - with the event topped off by a driver introduction where all 20 drivers were raised onto platforms team by team as they greeted the fans. The highly-produced set piece appeared to be well received by the spectators, despite some gripes about the audio, and less awkward than Miami's hamfisted boxing style intros, with more buy-in from driver