LAS VEGAS, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Ferrari's Carlos Sainz said he watched every drain cover as he sped to third place in Saturday's Las Vegas Formula One Grand Prix, mindful of his 2023 accident on the track.

The Spaniard's car was wrecked in practice for last year's inaugural race down the Nevada city's famed Strip after it went over a loose cover that lifted and punched a hole through the floor.

To compound his misfortune that weekend, stewards handed Sainz a 10-place grid penalty because Ferrari had to replace the survival cell, engine, energy store and control electronics.

"I was hoping that maybe Vegas had something to offer me after what happened last year. I'll take a podium for this year," Sainz, whose unhappy team mate Charles Leclerc was fourth, said before the celebrations.

"But, you know, at the same time, yeah, I was looking at every manhole during that race, avoiding them this time," he added.

"But that's things of the past, (I'm) now focused on the future. I think this race has delivered, again, a pretty good show and looking forward to come back here in the future."

Ferrari closed the gap to leaders McLaren to 24 points with two race weekends, including a sprint worth eight points, remaining.

Mercedes' George Russell won the race in a one-two with seven-times champion Lewis Hamilton, who is replacing Sainz at Ferrari next season, while Red Bull's Max Verstappen won his fourth title.

Sainz said the Italian team had still misfired, messing up radio communications and keeping him out one lap later than he had wanted on the medium tyre and two laps too late on the hards.

Leclerc was also upset about the team's strategy, making his feelings clear over the radio in an angry rant.

"It just shows that in this sport, you need to do things perfectly week in, week out. We've been doing things really well in strategy and on race management all year around but today wasn't our day," Sainz said.

"We just didn't do things well and we will have to learn from it and make sure we come back in Qatar stronger."

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Helen Popper)

((alan.baldwin@thomsonreuters.com; +442075427933;))