Verstappen crowned champion as Russell heads Mercedes 1-2 in Las Vegas

Max Verstappen became a four-time world champion with an assured drive to fifth place during Saturday night’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, while pole-sitter George Russell and the charging Lewis Hamilton earned a one-two finish for Mercedes.

Verstappen entered the 50-lap encounter knowing that all he needed to do was keep title rival Lando Norris behind him to secure another crown, which the Dutchman achieved by holding position into the first corner and gradually pulling away from the McLaren driver.

Having held a podium spot after the second round of pit stops, Verstappen opted against a fight when the Ferraris arrived at the rear of his Red Bull in the closing laps – both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finding a way past before the chequered flag.

At the front, Russell expertly managed a tricky race in cool, slippery conditions, keeping a fast-starting Leclerc at bay in the early laps – the latter running into tyre troubles as a result of that aggression – and controlling proceedings thereafter.

Hamilton bounced back from a challenging conclusion to qualifying, which left him 10th on the grid, to work his way through the field and back up team mate Russell, whose win marked the first Mercedes triumph since July’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Norris made a successful bid for the fastest lap in the dying moments as he took sixth, and mathematically dropped out of championship contention, with team mate Oscar Piastri crossing the line seventh after a time penalty for a false start.

Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg cleared RB’s Yuki Tsunoda late on in what could be crucial for the tight constructors’ battle over P6, especially after second-row starter Pierre Gasly suffered an agonising retirement due to technical trouble aboard his Alpine.

Sergio Perez added a point to Red Bull’s tally in 10th, denying Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, with one-stopping Haas racer Kevin Magnussen 12th from Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu and the Williams of Franco Colapinto, who started in the pit lane following his scary qualifying crash.

Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Liam Lawson (RB), Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Valtteri Bottas (Kick Sauber) were the final finishers, after Alex Albon became the second retirement from the race for Williams due to technical gremlins of his own.

All the attention, though, was on Verstappen when he returned to parc ferme, the 27-year-old lapping up the celebrations with the Red Bull team thanks to him joining a group of F1 greats on four world titles – all achieved one after the other.

AS IT HAPPENED

At the end of an absorbing qualifying session under the Las Vegas lights, Russell brilliantly converted Mercedes’ strong practice pace to secure pole position and break a run of McLaren and Ferrari P1 starts stretching back to the British Grand Prix in July.

Sainz emerged as his nearest challenger, ahead of an inspired Gasly and then Leclerc, with title challengers Verstappen and Norris sharing the third row of the grid – the Red Bull man knowing that finishing ahead would land him a fourth successive world title.

There were a couple of changes to the grid ahead of the start, as Bottas dropped behind Stroll at the back via a new power unit component and Colapinto went from P14 to the pit lane given the extensive repairs required after his huge qualifying shunt.

As the tyre blankets came off the cars, it was revealed that the majority of drivers would be starting on Pirelli’s medium compound tyres, with Perez, Bottas and Colapinto opting for hards, and Alonso going aggressive on softs.

A few moments later, it was time for the main event – the 50-lap Las Vegas Grand Prix. When the lights went out, pole-sitter Russell made a clean getaway to hold his lead into the first corner, while Leclerc charged from P4 to P2 by clearing Gasly and Sainz through Turns 1 and 2.

Just behind, Verstappen and Norris raised heart rates at Red Bull and McLaren by going wheel-to-wheel in the first sector, remaining P5 and P6 respectively from Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Piastri and Hamilton, as Lawson and Magnussen had their own close battle in the midfield.

By Lap 4, Leclerc was all over the back of Russell and came close to pulling off a move at Turn 14, where Verstappen slipped past Gasly for P4, and the Mercedes man was then forced to go defensive through Turn 1 at the start of Lap 5 to keep the Ferrari behind.

Alonso gained several spots in the opening laps, only for the gamble to seemingly backfire when he pitted early to ditch his soft rubber, but there was a greater problem for Piastri when the stewards handed him a five-second time penalty for an incorrect starting position.

After such a strong start to the race, Leclerc’s pace dramatically dropped off a cliff – allowing Sainz and Verstappen to slot ahead in quick succession. Meanwhile, Hamilton put a move on Piastri for eighth position, and Norris found his way past Gasly for P5.

Only 10 laps in, Leclerc pitted to swap his troubled medium tyres for a set of hards, along with Norris. One tour later, Sainz, Gasly, Tsunoda and Piastri did the same, leaving Russell and Verstappen on their own up front, and promoting a flying Hamilton to third.

Verstappen made his change to hards on Lap 12, rejoining the action in a gaggle of midfield cars but crucially in front of both Ferraris and title rival Norris, followed by a pit lane visit for leader Russell on Lap 13 – releasing the yet-to-stop Hamilton, Perez and Hulkenberg.

A few laps later, with the rest of the front-runners having pitted, Russell moved back into P1 over Verstappen, Sainz, Leclerc and Norris. Hamilton was now behind that pack and left to question the strategy, but being told he would have dropped “another five places” by staying out longer.

Disaster then struck for Gasly, who let out a cry of “no power” while smoke exited the rear of his car. After that stunning P3 start, the Frenchman was forced to return to the pit lane and park up outside the Alpine garage – dealing a blow to their constructors’ efforts.

Hamilton lit up the timesheets with fresh tyres and a slight offset, soon closing on Norris and easily making a move, with future Ferrari team mate Leclerc – whose early stop limited the damage of his pace drop-off – the next target a couple of seconds further down the road.

As the halfway mark approached, Russell sat some 10 seconds clear of Verstappen, followed by the Ferraris and Hamilton, who commented that “these guys are fast on the straights”. Norris remained sixth, with Tsunoda, Piastri, Hulkenberg and a recovering Albon holding the final points.

Ocon and Alonso soon confirmed what everyone expected from the early stages of the race by pitting for a second time – the latter’s hard tyres lasting just 20 laps. Albon’s next stop would be terminal, though, with Williams calling him in to retire the car with a technical issue.

Verstappen and Hamilton were the first of the front-runners to pit for more hards on Lap 28, while Sainz also appeared to commit to a stop, only to be told to stay out at the last moment and dart back onto the track. “Wake up guys!” Sainz shouted, before boxing on the next tour.

Norris, Leclerc and Russell all stopped over the next few laps, as previous pitters Hamilton and Verstappen converged on track – the seven-time world champion putting a move on the man aiming to claim a fourth title with a DRS-assisted overtake down the back straight.

“Max, just don’t lose sight of our aim today,” Verstappen’s engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, commented in what appeared to be a delayed radio message. “Yeah, I’m doing my own race,” replied the Dutchman, who barely put up a fight.

Further back, the stewards noted an unseen incident between Lawson and Ocon at Turn 3, with the latter radioing his frustration over some contact, but there would be no further investigation and no penalties handed out by the officiating panel.

After those stops, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff’s post-qualifying prediction had come true thanks to Russell and Hamilton now running in one-two formation, ahead of Verstappen, the Ferraris and Norris – the latter’s championship bid all but over.

Hamilton’s charge continued over the next few laps as he repeatedly took several tenths of a second out of team mate Russell, who improved his pace in response, while Verstappen fell into the clutches of the Ferraris and asked Red Bull if they wanted him to defend.

In the other Red Bull, Perez raised eyebrows with a double pass on Magnussen and Lawson into Turn 14, the three of them somehow avoiding a collision, before the Mexican cleared Ocon and knocked on the door of points – P10 now being held by Alonso.

Verstappen’s radio message was followed by a relatively cautious approach when Sainz and Leclerc drew ever closer, the former soon finding a way past and the latter eventually slipping ahead on Lap 47 after several laps hovering behind the Red Bull.

Russell was given another hurry-up by his engineer amid Hamilton’s electric pace, which saw the gap between the pair stabilise at around five seconds, and the younger Briton ultimately got the job done to add to his win in Austria earlier this season.

Sainz, Leclerc and Verstappen also held their formation in P3, P4 and P5 respectively, with Norris taking the opportunity to pit for a set of soft tyres and score the fastest lap bonus point – having enough time in hand over team mate Piastri to do so.

Hulkenberg beat Tsunoda to eighth with a late pass to aid Haas’s push for P6 in the constructors’ standings, while Perez salvaged one point from another difficult weekend after that aforementioned two-car overtake and a decisive move on Alonso.

Magnussen could not quite join team mate Hulkenberg in the points, having been the only driver to pit just once en route to P12 over Zhou and Colapinto, who at least managed to get a Williams to the finish after his qualifying accident and Albon’s retirement.

Stroll was 15th at the flag, ahead of the squabbling Lawson and Ocon (the latter also pitting for softs late on), with Bottas the last to cross the line given that Albon and Gasly were watching from the sidelines after their technical misfortune.

Then came a spectacular round of celebrations as midnight approached at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit – Russell, Hamilton and Sainz enjoying the podium ceremony and Verstappen starting to realise what he has achieved as a four-time champion.