Red Bull driver Max Verstappen won today's Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, keeping him in contention for a fifth consecutive world championship title with two race weekends remaining.
The Dutch driver recorded the 69th triumph of his career in Las Vegas, and also the sixth this season.
Verstappen also celebrated on the street circuit in Las Vegas in the premiere edition, in 2023.
Second place was taken by McLaren driver Lando Norris, who thus remains the leader in the overall standings, while third place went to last year's winner in Las Vegas - George Russell from Mercedes.
Fourth place was taken by Oscar Piastre of McLaren, fifth place was completed by Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes, and sixth place went to Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.
Points were also scored by Carlos Sainz of Williams, Isaac Hajar of Racing Bulls, Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton.
Norris leads the overall standings with 408 points, Piastre is second with 378 points, while Verstappen is in third place with 366 points.
Noris started the race from pole position, while Ferstappen started from second position.
Sainz and Russell were on the second starting row, Piastre started the race from fifth place, Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) was sixth at the start, and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Hajar, Leclerc and Pierre Gasly from Alpine also started the race in the top 10.
All the leading drivers for the start of the Las Vegas street race opted for medium-hard tires.
After poor qualifying, Hamilton started the race from the back, while Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda started from the pit lane.
Norris briefly fended off Verstappen's attack at the very beginning, but went too wide, went off the track and allowed the Dutchman to take first place.
A successful attack by Russell on Norris for second place soon followed.
The start of the race brought several incidents, such as contact between Piastrius and Lawson, after which the McLaren driver dropped to seventh place, while Hajar and Lawson took fifth and sixth positions.
At the back, Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoletto hit the car of Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, after which the Canadian had to retire from the race.
Hamilton took advantage of the large crowd at the start, and on the hard tires he made it to 12th place.
The greatest progress was made by Hasa driver Oliver Berman, who moved from 14th place to eighth, while Alonso dropped from seventh to 10th. Among the leaders, Sainz was in fourth place.
Lawson had a technical problem on the second lap, which caused him to fall to the back, and on the same lap, due to parts of the track, a virtual safety car was introduced, which was in effect for the next two laps.
The fourth lap saw the second retirement, and Bortoleto retired from the race.
Russell reduced the gap to less than one second over Verstappen on the sixth lap, but the Red Bull driver retained first place without major problems.
On the same lap, Leclerc passed Berman and took seventh place, and the Monegasque then successfully attacked Piastre from the outside on lap 12 for sixth position.
Two laps later, Leclerc moved up to fifth position, while at the same time a great battle for 12th place was taking place between Hamilton and Alexander Albon of Williams.
There was also contact between Hamilton and Albon, after which the Williams driver was left without a front wing, dropping to last place, and a virtual safety car was soon deployed due to the track conditions.
The race management decided to penalize Albon with an additional five seconds for this incident, and the same penalty was given to Antonelli, who was in 13th place at the time, for starting the race too quickly.
Of the leading drivers, Russell was the first to go for a tire change on lap 18. On lap 22, Piastre went into the pits, and a lap later, Norris, for whom this was the 150th race of his career, also went into the pits.
Norris, with his late stop, was unable to make up the gap to Russell, so the Mercedes driver remained in second place after the tire change.
On lap 25, Leclerc pitted, returning behind Piastre, while a lap later, the leading Verstappen pitted for a tire change.
The Dutchman stayed in the pits a little longer (three seconds), but returned to the track in first place without any major problems.
On lap 30, Hamilton also made a mandatory tire change, switching to medium-hard tires, returning to 10th place ahead of Alonso and Berman.
Among the leaders, Norris drove the fastest laps, which allowed him to close the gap to Russell to under one second on lap 33.
A lap later Norris successfully attacked Russell from the outside, taking over second place.
Norris's task in the final 15 laps was to close the five-second gap to Verstappen and try to record his third consecutive triumph of the season in Las Vegas.
Verstappen accelerated in the following laps and increased the gap over Norris, thus responding to the McLaren team's announced fight for victory.
On lap 37, Albon retired from the race due to technical problems.
The following laps brought a battle from fourth to sixth place. Antonelli, due to his early first pit stop, moved up to fourth position, while Piastre and Leclerc were behind him.
Antonelli managed to hold off Piastre and Leclerc until the end of the race, but due to a five-second penalty, he finished the race behind the McLaren driver.
Norris had problems with his car in the last two laps, falling over 20 seconds behind Verstappen, but managed to maintain a three-second lead over Russell.
The championship continues in seven days with the Qatar Grand Prix. In Qatar, in addition to the main race on Saturday, there will also be a sprint.
The ranking is led by Lando Norris (Great Britain) with 408 points, Oskar Piastre (Australia) with 378 and Max Verstappen (Netherlands) with 366.
McLaren had previously secured victory in the constructors' championship.
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