Race report

F1 Las Vegas GP: Max Verstappen triumphs, Lando Norris nears F1 title before DSQ

Max Verstappen wins to stay in the title fight, with Lando Norris enjoying an even more comfortable lead before his disqualification

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Max Verstappen kept his Formula 1 title hopes alive with victory at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, capitalising from Lando Norris' wide moment at the start of the race.

Verstappen's fast start forced Norris into an aggressive defence into the opening corner, but the Briton outbraked himself in the short run to Turn 1 to extinguish any momentum. The reigning champion broke past to lead the race, while Norris ended up losing another position to George Russell, who nipped past Carlos Sainz off the line.

Although Russell put Verstappen under pressure in the early laps, the Red Bull driver weathered the storm and rebuilt a buffer to keep the Mercedes out of DRS range. As such, Russell then began to fall back, providing Norris with an opportunity to upgrade his position.

However, Russell's undercut strategy to collect the hard tyre ensured that any Norris challenge would have to wait until after the stops, and briefly offered the Mercedes driver a chance to get closer to Verstappen once the pitstop cycle had played out.

Verstappen emerged from his own stop just over a second clear of Russell and, with fresher tyres, easily bolted into the distance. This again left Russell in the clutches of Norris, who cruised past on the 34th lap at Turn 14 – the now third-placed Russell admitting that he didn't want to take risk and concede a podium finish.

George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

Norris was told to chase after Verstappen, but the Dutchman was kept informed of the McLaren driver's renewed challenge and began to turn in a series of quick laps. This ensured that Norris had little chance of reclaiming the lead, and the deal was done when Norris' pace dropped significantly late on.

A need to save fuel at the end of the race cost Norris around 14 seconds in the final four laps, although his advantage over Russell was good enough to retain second at the line. Russell had encountered the same steering issues that he'd faced in qualifying, although protection from a long-stinting Andrea Kimi Antonelli ensured that the Briton faced no further threat to his podium finish.

After starting 17th, Antonelli had done 48 laps on the hard tyre having stopped early on to ditch the soft tyres he'd started on, but dropped from fourth to fifth due to a five-second penalty – accrued for jumping the start by a barely perceptible amount on the grid.

Oscar Piastri thus moved up to fourth to lessen the damage in the championship, although now sits 30 points behind Norris in the standings, having kept Charles Leclerc at bay while battling behind Antonelli.

Sainz collected seventh, over 10 seconds clear of Isack Hadjar as the duo's impressive qualifying performances were converted into points finishes, while Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton completed the top 10; Hamilton moved up from 19th on the grid, having survived contact with Alex Albon on the 13th lap.

F1 Las Vegas GP results

RACE

All Stats

Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Pits	Points	Chassis	Engine
1	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1	50	1:21'08.429		229.201	1	25	Red Bull	Red Bull
dq	L. Norris McLaren	4	50	+20.741 1:21'29.170	20.741	228.228	1		McLaren	Mercedes
2	G. Russell Mercedes	63	50	+23.546 1:21'31.975	2.805	228.097	1	18	Mercedes	Mercedes
dq	O. Piastri McLaren	81	50	+27.650 1:21'36.079	4.104	227.906	1		McLaren	Mercedes
3	A. Kimi Antonelli Mercedes	12	50	+30.488 1:21'38.917	2.838	227.774	1	15	Mercedes	Mercedes
4	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16	50	+30.678 1:21'39.107	0.190	227.765	1	12	Ferrari	Ferrari
5	C. Sainz Williams	55	50	+34.924 1:21'43.353	4.246	227.568	1	10	Williams	Mercedes
6	I. Hadjar Racing Bulls	6	50	+45.257 1:21'53.686	10.333	227.089	1	8	RB	Honda
7	N. Hulkenberg Sauber	27	50	+51.134 1:21'59.563	5.877	226.818	1	6	Sauber	Ferrari
8	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44	50	+59.369 1:22'07.798	8.235	226.439	1	4	Ferrari	Ferrari
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