Verstappen World Champion as Russell wins Vegas GP

Max Verstappen secured his fourth consecutive World Drivers’ Championship in Las Vegas as George Russell dominated from pole for his third career win.

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Russell’s teammate Lewis Hamilton produced a strong race performance to make up for a poor qualifying to go from 10th to 2nd, as Mercedes’ car excelled in the low grip and low temperatures.

Verstappen was overtaken by both Ferraris late in the race as Red Bull clearly didn’t have the fastest car. Crucially, McLaren struggled even more, finishing behind Verstappen, meaning his fifth-place finish was enough to take him into the elite club of four-time world champions: Fangio, Prost, Schumacher, Vettel, and Hamilton.

Carlos Sainz secured a podium ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc, despite a Ferrari pit error, which meant he lost time by staying out an extra lap. The result means Ferrari slashed McLaren’s constructor’s championship, heading into the start of the triple header season finale.

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A mechanical problem forced Pierre Gasly to retire, ruining his brilliant qualifying performance. Nico Hulkenberg overtook Yuki Tsunoda for eighth late on.

Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez both made recoveries from their Q1 knockouts to fight for the final points. The Mexican prevailed, but his qualifying will need to improve for the next two rounds if he is to keep his seat next year. The result does mean Red Bull’s chances of a third consecutive Constructor’s Championship are now pretty much over.

Despite the low temperatures, Pirelli’s decision to bring their softest three tyres to the race forced nearly all the drivers into 2-stop races. As drivers are only allowed 2 sets of hard tyres for the weekend, it meant they were unable to use them in practice and went into the unknown in the race.

The Vegas race didn’t match the same level of drama as last year’s race (mainly because of Russell’s dominance), but it still provided good overtaking opportunity and wheel-to-wheel action as well as a historic World Championship decider.