F1
Max hits the jackpot in Vegas
Max Verstappen powered past title rival Lando Norris at the start to take a stunning lights-to-flag Las Vegas Grand Prix victory.
When the lights went out at the start, Lando got away well from Pole position, but Max was quicker, and as the Dutchman drove to draw alongside, the McLaren driver tried to slam the door shut. However, in doing so he went wide in Turn 1 and Max was able to power through to take the lead.
Max Took Pole Position From The First Turn
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Behind him, Lando was also passed by George Russell, who had already dismissed Williams’ Carlos Sainz. Behind the top four, VCARB’s Liam Lawson clunked wheels with Oscar Piastri and the McLaren driver fell to sixth behind Isack Hadjar.
There were incidents further back, too, with Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto slamming into Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll. That allowed Yuki to climb to P17 from his pit lane start, and as yellow flags flew to eventually become a VSC, the Japanese driver pitted to shed his starting Mediums and fit a set of Hard tyres.
At the front, Max was pushing to establish a gap, but initially George was able to stay with the Dutchman. However, as the stint settled, Max gradually began to pull away, and on lap 8, he broke out of DRS range, and what had been a gap of just under a second soon swelled to 1.4s.
Behind the leaders, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who had started in P9, was on the move, and after telling his team he was “pushing like an animal”, he powered past Oscar at the end of lap 12 and then muscled his way past Isack to claim sixth place.
Max, The Ace Of The Grid
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As the race headed towards half distance, the frontrunners all made their way to the pit lane for fresh tyres, with Max being the last to make a switch, at the end of lap 25. The champion bolted on a set of Hard tyres before returning to the front of the pack, 1.2 seconds clear of George. Lando was a further three seconds back, while long-running Hard-tyre starters Nico Hülkenberg and Lewis Hamilton sat in fourth and fifth places.
The Hard-tyre starters eventually pitted, and with the order re-established, fourth place was in the hands of Kimi Antonelli, still on Hards after his lap 3 stop, while Oscar was in fifth ahead of Charles and Carlos. Isack was now eighth, ahead of Nico and Lewis.
On lap 32, George informed his team that he was struggling to keep Lando at bay and that he would rather take P3 on the podium than risk a battle, and two laps later the McLaren driver was allowed to sweep past to take P2. Once in P2, Lando was told to “go get Max”, the only words the Dutchman needed to spark an increase in pace, and he comfortably stretched the gap to Norris to 5.5s with 13 laps remaining.
Behind them, Kimi was being chased down by both Oscar and Charles. The Italian rookie was driving well, however, and despite nursing fading tyres, he managed to keep both tucked up in a DRS train.
With a handful of laps to go, Lando began to slow and it soon became clear that it was down to fuel saving, leaving Max to enjoy the last few laps with no pressure building behind him, cruising to his 69th win.
Another One For The Trophy Cabinet
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For Yuki, after making his early stop, the Japanese racer see-sawed through the order as he raced a 25-lap stint on Hards before pitting for another set of Mediums. But with tight battles all around, he couldn’t find a way forward and ended the race in P14.
Max’s sixth win of the season puts him at 366 points, 12 behind Oscar and 42 adrift of Lando with two races and a final Sprint remaining.
Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
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Max said afterwards, “we always try to just maximise everything that we've got – and this weekend, that was first. For the upcoming weekends we'll again try to win the race. And at the end of Abu Dhabi, we'll see where we end up."
We've had a really up-and-down season and tough times, but also really beautiful moments.
“But I'm very proud of everyone,” he added. "We've had a really up-and-down season and tough times, but also really beautiful moments. And we learned a lot throughout the whole season, and that's also very valuable for the upcoming years. That's something we just have to cling on to and [we’ll] just try to improve even more to come back stronger for next year. But we're enjoying it now, and then we'll see next week what we can do.”