George Russell capped an unexpectedly dominant Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend for Mercedes to hold off team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s comeback charge, as Max Verstappen finished fifth to seal 2024’s world title.
On the day Verstappen joined the exclusive ranks of four-time world champions by achieving the minimum requirement of finishing of one place ahead of Lando Norris to secure the crown, Russell motored away into the distance in the race itself to end Mercedes’ four-month wait for another race win.
Russell led away from pole at the start, and while he came under early pressure from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and then withstood a late charge from Hamilton, who had started 10th, the race leader did not put a foot wrong across the 50 laps and claimed his second win of the year and Mercedes’ first since July’s Belgian GP, when his team-mate inherited the victory after he was disqualified on technical grounds.
Hamilton finished seven seconds behind and was ultimately left to rue his pair of mistakes in the final phase of qualifying on Saturday which had left him down on the grid’s fifth row on a weekend Mercedes clearly had the quickest car around the spectacular floodlit Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
Verstappen had risen to second from fifth on the grid in the race’s first stint but his Red Bull was less competitive in the long second stint on hard tyres and he was eventually shuffled out of the podium places.
After being overtaken by Hamilton soon after their respective stops, a relatively compliant Verstappen, who clearly had the wider title picture in mind, was then overtaken by the Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
But with Norris a further 10 seconds back, there was no real threat of Verstappen losing any more ground and dropping out of a title-winning position.
Indeed, running in something of a no man’s land in sixth, Norris made a late pit stop for fresh tyres to take the bonus point for the race’s fastest lap – which, while having no impact on the outcome of the drivers’ title race, may be useful for McLaren’s now sole challenge, trying to close out the Constructors’ Championship ahead of Ferrari.
Indeed with Oscar Piastri only seventh in the sister car, McLaren’s lead over Ferrari has been reduced to 24 points with two race weekends to go in the Middle East – first in Qatar next week and then Abu Dhabi on December 6-8.
Nico Hulkenberg drove strongly to finish eighth place, taking Haas back ahead of Alpine for sixth in the Constructors’ Championship after their rivals’ unexpected double podium in Brazil, with Yuki Tsunoda ninth for RB ahead of Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull, who had started 15th.
More to follow…
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