Verstappen steals show in Vegas to clinch fourth consecutive title with fifth-place finish, as Russell dominates to win & Hamilton fights back from P10 for Silver Arrows 1-2; Ferrari outscore McLaren on bad day for Papayas

Even on a night where his Red Bull was nowhere near the fastest car, Max Verstappen managed to outshine all the other drivers by doing just enough under the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip Circuit to earn his fourth consecutive Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship and vault himself into the truly elite company of the all time great pilots of the sport. With his closest rival, McLaren’s Lando Norris, unable to get to grips with the very slick street track in the cool desert night conditions of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Verstappen put paid to the young Briton’s title dreams by finishing P5 to Norris’ P6, mathematically bagging the 2024 Championship with two rounds still to go. Certainly the most challenging title tilt for the Flying Dutchman since his epic and controversial showdown with Lewis Hamilton in 2021, Verstappen nevertheless prevailed by banking the early domination of winning seven of the first ten races to start the season. He then outperformed the increasingly mediocre Red Bull to nurse his championship lead through waves of onslaught by not only the incredibly improved McLarens but also the strong-finishing Ferraris and Mercedes. In fact, it was Mercedes who dominated here in Vegas, with their soon to be team leader, George Russell, romping through the race weekend as clearly the favorite on pace after taking an assured pole in qualifying on this challenging and surreal 6.2 kilometer street track. Russell controlled the Grand Prix from the front when the lights went out and never relented despite the unpredictability of a two-stop tire strategy necessitated by unexpected degradation for all the runners. But Russell proved masterful in his tire management and went on to take the relatively easy victory. And while Verstappen didn’t even make the podium, for all intents and purposes that was irrelevant. Once again, he made the most of his dominant efforts and then maximized his results when on the back foot, even under severe pressure from the Norris-McLaren challenge in the latter third of the year. It all ended up in yet another Max Verstappen championship and The Dutch Master has now sealed a four-year stretch of dominance equivalent to that of Sebastien Vettel in a previous generation of Red Bull chassis and power unit (2010-2013). He also joins Michael Schumacher (7), Hamilton (7),  Juan Manuel Fangio (5) and Alain Prost & Vettel (4) as the only drivers to earn four titles or more in F1’s now seventy-four year history.

From Bahrain to Vegas – here’s how Max Verstappen stacked up the points to secure another world championship 🧱#F1 pic.twitter.com/Bhp49YYFhj

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 25, 2024

Russell was never really under threat for the win, such was his pace, but Silver Arrows teammate, Lewis Hamilton, needs a vintage drive to vault himself up the standings from down in tenth on the grid after a totally disastrous Friday night qualifying effort. Such was the surprising pace of the Mercedes W15 here, though, that Hamilton was able to steadily push up to the front and towards his teammate, dusting off Norris, both Ferraris and Verstappen along the way in impressive fashion, and come home a remarkable P2 behind Russell. That made it an amazing race weekend for Mercedes, even amidst the obvious tensions within the team due to Hamilton’s long simmering defection to Ferrari next season. And speaking of the Prancing Horses, while they had nothing for the Mercedes duo and their ability to mange their Pirelli tires better than any other cars in the field, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc did manage to come home best of the rest in P3 and P4 respectively. With Norris only able to secure P6 and teammate OscarI Piastri struggling en route to P7, it was bad news for McLaren but great news for the Scuderia in the tussle for the all important Constructors’ Championship. McLaren’s overall advantage shrunk to 24 points over Ferrari, an imminently manageable deficit with two rounds remaining. It could certainly go either way but, at least in Las Vegas, Ferrari looked on the ascent, or at least they were able to manage their struggles much better than McLaren, the braintrust and drivers of the latter team coming away nonplussed by their sudden lack of performance. It remains to be seen whether that trend will continue at the next race in Qatar at the much more conventional Tilke-designed Lusail International Circuit.

Lewis with the moves 🕺

Hamilton powers from P10 to the podium 💪#F1 #LasVegasGP pic.twitter.com/qBeYAGzekW

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 24, 2024

Top 10 finishers of the Las Vegas GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a week’s time for the penultimate round of 2024 from Lusail International Circuit in Qatar. While the Drivers’ Championship is done and dusted courtesy of King Max, there’s all to play for in the supremely valuable Constructors’ Title. Hope to see you then to find out if Ferrari can overhaul McLaren for the top spot or, with a little bad luck to both those rivals, Red Bull just might sneak back into contention!