Max Verstappen dominates F1 Las Vegas GP to keep championship hopes alive

Max Verstappen has won the Las Vegas Grand Prix with a dominant drive that was enough to just keep his world championship hopes alive. Title leader Lando Norris took second and with his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in fourth he managed to put another six points on him, with the Australian too just hanging on to his title chances. However an hour and a half after the race the FIA announced they wereinvestigating the wear on the skid blocks on both McLaren cars. Ifthey are found to have been worn down beyond the limits of theregulations both will almost certainly be disqualified given therules around skid wear are hard and fast. With the second place, Norris must be considered world champion in waiting, though he will not countenance allowing the thought of it to cloud his approach. He now leads Piastri by 30 points; 58 remain on the table from the final two meetings in Qatar, which includes a sprint race, and Abu Dhabi. If Norris comes out of the meeting in Doha with a 26 point lead he will seal the championship there. As it stands finishing in front of Piastri and Verstappen in both races in Qatar would be enough. Verstappen was all but untouchable out front for Red Bull once he had taken the lead from pole-sitter Norris through the first corner after the British driver paid the price for being too aggressive when the lights went out and went wide. Then losing a further place to Mercedes’ George Russell who was ultimately third. In the dry conditions the Red Bull was far superior than it had been in the wet in qualifying and Verstappen was almost flawless as he bossed the race on the street circuit in Nevada, if it was perhaps the least invigorating of the three meetings the circuit has now held. The win was another statement of intent from Verstappen and Red Bull that he will keep fighting to the very last in this championship even as his chances remain slim at best. He now trails Norris by 42 points and realistically needs the British driver to fail to finish if he is to stay in it post Doha. Nonetheless his late season surge has been hugely impressive. Having been 104 points behind Piastri after the Dutch GP in August, Verstappen has won four and taken three podiums in the last seven meetings, including coming back from a pit lane start in Brazil to claim third place. It has been an extraordinary turnaround for the team and driver: he now has six wins this year, a feat that had looked all but impossible given Verstappen had effectively written off his chances of defending his title at the midpoint of the season. Norris however kept his head and played the percentages. He has been calm and collected all weekend, insisting he had banished considerations of taking the title from his mind but rather focusing intently only each session and it has paid off. He delivered an immense lap to take pole in treacherous wet conditions and went on to maximise what he could from the race, even as he had to lift and coast to save fuel at the death. The start had been key. Verstappen made a good launch as Norris aggressively chopped across in front of him, looking to cut him off, but was consequently too hot into turn one and went wide allowing the Dutchman to take the lead, while Norris, then still out of shape, lost second to a fast-starting Russell. Piastri also lost two places to fall to seventh, after being dealt a glancing blow from contact with Liam Lawson. Concern about tyre graining was clearly an issue, with McLaren in particular having suffered from it in last year’s race and Russell backed off from Verstappen having not found a way past the Dutchman. Related: The Disneyfication of F1: Goofy in the pitlane and Fantasia in Vegas underline sport’s US transformation Piastri came in on lap 22, pulling off a good undercut on Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc and Norris followed a lap later. The latter emerged once more behind Russell but on fresher rubber with the hard tyres now on and with the leaders all set for a one-stop strategy. Verstappen meanwhile was clearly comfortable out front and stayed out long, maintaining a strong pace despite having older tyres and he came in on lap 25 and held his lead. Norris was told to once more ease his rubber in to go after Russell late in the race but neither looked like they could catch Verstappen. Norris duly then attacked Russell, who was struggling for pace, on lap 34 and swept past into turn 14. “We’re going to get Max,” was the instruction from the team as the Briton had five seconds to make up to Verstappen. It was nonetheless a tall order with Verstappen clearly having pace in hand on the McLaren as he set a series of fastest laps and extending the lead he held to the flag, while Piastri managed fourth from fifth on the grid, making the best of what might have been an even more damaging evening in Sin City. Lewis Hamilton came back to 10th place from 19th on the grid with Leclerc in sixth behind Mercedes’ Antonelli. Earlier in the day in Las Vegas the Mercedes junior driver Doriane Pin claimed the 2025 F1 Academy championship. With fifth place in the final race of the season, the 21-year-old Frenchwoman took the title, having scored four wins and eight podiums in the all-female series. She is the Academy’s third winner with Marta García and Abbi Pulling champions in 2023 and 2024.