Verstappen wins title as Russell triumphs in Vegas

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won his fourth consecutive World Drivers’ Championship with fifth place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The race was won by Mercedes’ George Russell, who held off a charge by team-mate Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time champion taking second place from 10th on the grid.

Verstappen’s position behind the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc was more than enough for the Dutchman.

His title rival Lando Norris could manage only sixth for McLaren, his deficit to the Dutchman now 63 points with a maximum of 60 available.

Verstappen joins Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel as a four-time champion, with only Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio ahead of him in that list.

“What a season,” Verstappen said to his team over the radio. “It was a little more difficult than last season, but we pulled through.”

He added: “It has been a long season and we started amazing, almost like cruising, and then we had a tough run but we kept it together as a team, kept working on improvements and pulled it over the line.

“To stand here as a four-time world champion is something I never thought possible so standing here relieved in a way but also proud.”

Third and fourth places for the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc reduced their deficit to McLaren in the constructors’ championship to 24 points with two races to go. Norris stopped for fresh tyres to take fastest lap in the closing stages to give McLaren an extra point.

Verstappen, starting one place ahead of Norris in fifth place on the grid, headed his rival throughout a relatively quiet race for the Red Bull driver as Russell took control from the start.

Verstappen’s measured performance was aimed at securing the title at the first chance he had, and he did so with the calmness and aplomb with which he has driven for the vast majority of the year.

Russell controlled the race from the front, fending off an early challenge from Leclerc, who jumped from fourth on the grid to second past Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and then Sainz around the first two corners.

And as Leclerc then squabbled with the recovering Sainz, and the Ferraris then ran into tyre trouble before Mercedes and Verstappen, Russell stretched out his lead to take control of the race.

Hamilton ran 10th in the early laps, but drove a superb first stint, fast while also keeping his tyres in shape.

He vaulted up on to the back of the lead group by delaying his first stop, and passed Norris shortly after it. The seven-time champion then set about challenging the Ferraris, with Verstappen at this point second ahead of Sainz and Leclerc, having overtaken the red cars with a later pit stop.

But Hamilton, lacking straight-line speed in his Mercedes, was unable to make progress past the red cars.

Instead, Mercedes made a second pit stop on lap 27, a lap before Sainz and four laps before Leclerc, and Hamilton used his pace to emerge in second place.

He caught Verstappen with a succession of fastest laps and swept by on the straight on lap 31.

Russell followed Leclerc in on lap 32, and for a few laps after his stop Hamilton took chunks out of his team-mate’s lead, getting it down from 11.2 seconds to 7.4 in seven laps.

But it soon became clear that Russell had the race under control, and he led Hamilton to an unexpected one-two.

Behind them, the Ferraris closed back in on Verstappen after their final pit stops and both passed him in the final 10 laps.

Behind Norris, his team-mate Oscar Piastri was seventh as Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, RB’s Yjuki Tsunoda and Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez completed the top 10.