Red Bull driver Max Verstappen won his fourth consecutive championship title in Formula 1 today, as he finished the race for the Las Vegas Grand Prix in fifth place, while his main rival Lando Norris from McLaren crossed the finish line in sixth.
Verstappen has an unattainable 403 points two race weekends before the end, while Norris is in second place with 340 points. Verstappen thus equaled the number of championship titles with legendary drivers Alan Prost and Sebastian Vettel.
The victory in the street race in Las Vegas was celebrated by Mercedes driver George Russell, for whom this is the third triumph in the championship. His teammate Lewis Hamilton took second place, while Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz also climbed to the podium.
The fourth place was taken by Charles Leclerc from Ferrari, while Oskar Pjastri (McLaren), Niko Hulkenberg (Haas), Yuki Tsunoda (RB) and Sergio Peres (Red Bull) were placed from 7th to 10th place.
Russell started the race from the first starting position, Sains was behind him, while Pierre Gasly from Alpine and Leclerc were in the second starting row. Behind them in the fifth and sixth positions were Verstappen and Norris. After a bad finish in qualifying, Hamilton started the race from 10th place.
Most drivers started the race on medium hard tires. At the very start, Leclerc made the most progress, taking advantage of the duel between Sainz and Gasli and passing both of them to take second place.
In the fourth lap, Verstappen passed Gasli for fourth place, while Lekler made two attacks, but failed to take the lead from Russell.
In the meantime, Leclerc was losing more and more time compared to Russell, so the Ferrari team decided to switch positions and let Sainz take over third place. Leclerc already lost the third position to Verstappen in the eighth lap.
In the ninth lap, Noris successfully attacked Gasli for fifth place, while at the same time Hamilton advanced to seventh position.
A lap later saw the first pit stops from the leaders. Lekler and Norris were the first to go for a tire change, and they were soon followed by the others, from which it should be noted that Ferstapen went for a mandatory change on the 12th lap, Russell a lap later, while Hamilton, who was leading at the time, went to the pits on the 14th lap and came back just behind Norris.
The race management decided to penalize Oskar Pjastri from McLaren with an additional five seconds, due to a violation at the start of the race.
The only one of the leaders who did not change tires was VFrstappen's teammate, Sergio Peres, who was trying to slow down his rivals, which he partially succeeded.
In the 16th lap, Gasli retired from the race due to engine problems. A lap later, we saw a successful attack by Hamilton on Norris, who then reached fifth place.
The best pace in the rest of the race was held by Hamilton, who was trying to get around Leclerc for fourth place. In the 26th lap, Alexander Albon from Williams retired from the race due to technical problems.
In the 28th lap, Ferrari decided to leave Sainz to Leclerc in third place, and in the same lap, Verstappen and Hamilton went to the pits, while Sainz gave up changing tires at the last moment because the team was not ready.
Norris goes for the second tire change on the 31st lap, followed by Leclerc and Russell. In the 32nd lap, Hamilton passed Verstappen without any major problems and took second place from the Dutchman.
In the following, the most excitement was seen in the battles for the lower positions, so in the 38th lap, Peres made an excellent maneuver around two drivers - Kevin Magnussen from Haas and Liam Lawson from RB to take over 12th place.
Among the leaders, Hamilton was reducing the difference compared to the first-placed Russell, while Sainz was getting closer to the third position and the attack on Verstappen. The Spaniard did it successfully in the 42nd lap, while Leclerc was now close to Verstappen.
For the next three laps, the Dutchman benefited from being under one second behind Sainz, so he was able to use DRS, which prevented Leclerc from closing the gap further. In the continuation, Leclerc managed to get around Verstappen on the 47th lap.
By the end of the race, the biggest fight was for the extra point for the fastest lap, which ultimately went to Norris.
Drivers standings in today's Formula 1 race for the Las Vegas Grand Prix:
1. George Russell (Mercedes) one hour, 22 minutes, 05,969 seconds
2. Luis Hamilton (Mercedes) + 7,313; 3. Karlos Sainc (Ferari) + 11,906;4. Šarl Lekler (Ferari) + 14,283; 5. Maks Verstappen (Red Bul) + 16,582; 6. Lando Noris (Meklaren) + 43,385; 7. Oskar Pjastri (Meklaren) + 51,365; 8. Niko Hulkenberg (Has) + 59,808; 9. Juki Cunoda (RB) + 62,808; 10. Serhio Peres (Red Bul) + 63,114; 11. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) + 69,195; 12. Kevin Magnussen (Has) + 69,803; 13. Džou Gvanju (Zauber) + 74,085; 14. Franco Kolapinto (Vilijams) +75,172; 15. Lens Stroll (Aston Martin) + 84,102; 16. Lijam Lawson (RB) + 91,005; 17. Esteban Okon (Alpin) one round; 18. Valteri Botas (Zauber) one round.
The race did not finish: Alexander Albon (Williams), Pierre Gasly (Alpin).
The championship continues next week with the Qatar Grand Prix.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
