A Mercedes One-Two And A Fourth Crown For Verstappen In Las Vegas

The fourth Formula 1 race to be held in Las Vegas ended in triumph for Mercedes who secured a one-two finish courtesy of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. It also saw Max Verstappen crowned Drivers’ World Champion for a fourth consecutive time, after finishing fifth today. Having finished sixth, Lando Norris can no longer catch the Dutchman, with two rounds remaining.

This was Russell’s third win from 126 Grand Prix starts, his second of the season after the first in Spielberg. Mercedes topped every session this weekend on the way to their 60th one-two finish, the last one dating back to Brazil two years ago, again with Russell winning from Hamilton.

With four titles, Verstappen now joins, Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost in fourth place on the all-time championship winners list, which is headed by Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher on seven titles apiece, followed by Juan-Manuel Fangio on five. Strangely, this is the second time Max has won the title on a Saturday, having won it last year after the Sprint race in Lusail. It is Red Bull’s eighth Drivers’ title, all under the leadership of Christian Horner, in charge since its maiden season in 2005. The team is fourth in this particular category behind Ferrari (15), McLaren (12) and Mercedes (9).

Temperatures were slightly higher for the race, both ambient and track, compared to the previous days at 18/17 °C. On the grid, the vast majority of drivers opted to start on the Medium. There were four who chose otherwise: Alonso on Softs, Perez, Bottas and Colapinto, the latter starting from pit lane, on Hards. Almost all drivers made two stops, preferring to get the most out of the tyres, especially the two sets of Hards they had kept for the race, rather than trying to manage them, especially in the first stint.

As is so often the case, the laurels for the longest stints went to three specialists in this discipline, Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon both completing 33 laps on the Hard, while Valtteri Bottas did 18 with the Medium.

George Russell – P1

“To win in Las Vegas feels incredible! I’m so thankful for the team and happy for them that we got this win. We had great pace throughout and we were comfortable in the lead. You are always thinking that something might happen though, such as a safety car, but it was clean throughout. It was almost a perfect weekend as we took pole position, led almost every lap and took the 1-2. It was great to be up on the podium with Lewis; he drove a fantastic race to come through from P10. We couldn’t ask for more.

“I was meant to be flying out of here tonight but that’s not going to happen now! We will enjoy this night as a team as everyone deserves it. We will then sit down on Monday and go through the data to understand why we were so quick this weekend. Hopefully that can help us as we go into the final two races of the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Finally, I’d like to say congratulations to Max on his fourth title. He is a deserving champion, has driven at an incredible level all year, and is the man we will all be chasing in 2025.”

Lewis Hamilton – P2

“I’m really happy for the team. It was an exceptional performance by everyone this weekend to claim the 1-2. The car felt strong throughout and I had a really fun and enjoyable race. It felt great to be moving forward throughout as I had a long way to come back from! It is slightly bittersweet as if we had qualified where we should have yesterday, I think I could have won. Nevertheless, I didn’t think I would have been able to finish P2 today before the race so I’m very happy. Congratulations to George on a great drive to take victory. Congratulations must also go to Max too who claimed the title today. He’s done a fantastic job all year and is a deserving champion.”

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

“It has been a while since we took a 1-2 so this is a fantastic result for the team. The colder conditions on a low grip circuit such as this clearly suited us. Nevertheless, everyone did a great job to execute well across the weekend. We have been quick from the start of FP1 on Thursday and continued that into Friday and Saturday. We got the car in a great window and that is really pleasing.

“George managed the race superbly. He held off the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc early on and from there was in complete command of the Grand Prix. Lewis also drove fantastically to cut his way through the field from P10 to P2. He showed just how quick he is to secure a brilliant result for the team. Finally, congratulations to Max Verstappen on winning the title; he is a deserving champion, and we hope to take the fight to him next year.”

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

“We didn’t come to Las Vegas thinking that this track would suit us, so it’s been great to see the car working so well. We’ve been quick from lap one of practice on Thursday. We knew from those sessions that the single lap would be strong, but it was very encouraging to see the race pace today.

“George did an amazing job managing from the front, covering off safety car risks and making sure he kept his tyres in better shape than the cars behind. It was another well-deserved win and the third of his F1 career. Lewis meanwhile outperformed all our simulations today to achieve P2. His final stint was immense; he’ll be frustrated that he lost too much time in traffic to allow him to fight for the win but the 1-2 is of course a great result for the team. We now have two races to go in the season. We will be giving it everything we can to achieve similar success in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.”

Mario Isola – Pirelli Director of Motorsport

“First of all, congratulations to Max Verstappen on his fourth world title, an incredible achievement for a youngster who has only recently turned 27. Well done too to Red Bull, as this is the eighth time one of their drivers has been crowned champion. After the start of this season seemed to be following the same pattern as last year’s, Max had a tough time of it, but fought hard race after race, even though he did not have the most competitive package, proving to be an extraordinary champion.

“Congratulations must also go to Formula 1 for having put on an amazing event here in Las Vegas, full of sights and sounds and above all, a great show on track which definitely proved popular with the crowd of over 300,000 spectators who came to the track over the weekend and the millions watching on television and on-line.

“As for tyre performance, it was not a particularly clear cut Grand Prix, starting with the strategy choices. Prior to the race, the one-stop was clearly the quickest option but in the end, almost all the drivers pitted twice, if we leave out Norris who made an additional stop to go for the point for setting the fastest race lap and Ocon, who preferred not to take any risks at the end. From an initial analysis of the data, this was due mainly to the fact that several drivers chose to push hard right from the start without giving too much thought to tyre management. As a consequence, some of them therefore suffered more than expected with graining and were forced to make their first pit stop earlier than planned, which triggered a chain reaction which bit by bit pushed everyone towards a two-stop, especially as they knew they could count on two sets of Hard tyres, which was without a doubt the most competitive compound for the race.

“On average, the level of performance degradation was relatively low on both the Medium and the Hard, and so too was wear. Clearly some drivers suffered with degradation more than others, especially on the C4, but a one-stop was still doable if the tyres were managed carefully. The result was an action-packed Grand Prix with plenty of overtaking and wheel-to-wheel battles which was great for all the fans of this wonderful sport.”