Max Verstappen crowned world champion at Las Vegas Grand Prix

Max Verstappen won his fourth F1 world championship title in a row following the Las Vegas Grand Prix won on the night of Saturday to Sunday by George Russell ahead of his Mercedes teammate, Lewis Hamilton.

In the setting of the city of gambling, the Dutchman had only one mission: that of finishing ahead of his last rival Lando Norris to retain his world crown. Objective fulfilled since the Red Bull driver crossed the finish line 5th, ahead of the Briton’s McLaren, 6th.

With two rounds still to go and a maximum of 60 points to be taken during the last two meetings – in Qatar and Abu Dhabi – Verstappen is now 63 lengths ahead of Norris and can no longer be caught at the top of the general classification. .

It’s been a long, complicated, incredible season… I’m incredibly proud of the team, this fourth title is something I didn’t dare hope forhe reacted to the microphone of the TV broadcaster on a podium erected in front of the giant fountains of the Bellagio hotel.

We had a difficult summer, but [Verstappen] was exceptional, greeted Red Bull boss Christian Horner a few moments later. It was his best championship, but also the most difficult, he was up to the task on the days when the car was not completely up to it.

With his fourth title acquired, the 27-year-old driver joins the German Sebastian Vettel and the French legend of the discipline Alain Prost on the F1 list. He is only ahead of the Argentinian Juan Manuel Fangio (five crowns), the German Michael Schumacher and the British Lewis Hamilton, seven titles each.

For the most sumptuous weekend of the calendar, Mercedes, which we did not expect to perform as well for this 22nd round (out of 24) of the season, concluded an almost perfect weekend.

When the lights went out, George Russell retained the lead of the race ahead of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc, who moved up to 2nd place after starting 4th, and Carlos Sainz.

Behind, Pierre Gasly, surprising 3rd on the starting grid, quickly found himself under threat from Verstappen, 5th, who logically overtook the Frenchman’s Alpine four laps later.

True to his status, the powerful Dutchman then carried out his task without a hitch, taking the advantage in quick succession over the Ferraris… before they successively returned the favor with less than 10 laps to go.

At the checkered flag, the two silver arrows were ahead of Sainz, 3^ewhile Leclerc finished just off the podium.

We don’t know why the car was so fast this weekend, admitted Lewis Hamilton, author of a good comeback from 10th place. If the car behaves like this in the next races, we will be able to compete with the drivers ahead of us.

In front of an audience of stars including Sylvester Stallone, Paris Hilton or another type of racing car, the Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles, Norris competed in an anonymous race. Starting 6th on the urban circuit, the Briton crossed the finish line in the same place, ahead of his teammate Oscar Piastri, 7th.

Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) finished 15th.

Ferrari certainly did not win as expected, but thanks to the performances of its two drivers, the Scuderia, 2nd in the constructors’ championship, took 12 points from McLaren, the leading force in the field, which is only behind it. of 24 units.

Red Bull, arriving in Las Vegas with the wrong rear wing, remains 3rd, 53 points behind McLaren.

Alpine, propelled to 6th place (out of 10) in the championship at the beginning of November after its strategic winning move in Brazil, lost big in the streets of the gambling city since Gasly had to retire due to an engine problem – a a hard blow for the Norman, who had until then had a perfect weekend.

The French team – whose second driver Esteban Ocon finished 17th, out of the points – is in 7th place overall with 49 points, behind Haas (50 pts), but remains ahead of Racing Bulls (46 pts).