George Russell was victorious at Las Vegas following a pole to win drive for Mercedes. Max Verstappen finished one position ahead of Lando Norris to secure his fourth drivers’ championship.
Verstappen simply had to finish ahead of Lando Norris to secure a fourth successive title, and did so after crossing the finishing line fifth – Norris was sixth. The Red Bull driver was running third, before losing position to both Ferraris in the final ten laps.
In the meantime, Russell had an increasing threat from Hamilton to contend with in the final stages of the Las Vegas Grand Prix – Hamilton had recovered from P10 on the grid with passes on Oscar Piastri and Yuki Tsunoda in the early laps, before going long on his first stint to bring him on the tail of Verstappen, the Ferraris, and Norris.
This had initially confused Hamilton who, having looked at the alternate-strategy midfielders around him on the circuit, initially believed he had lost a handful of positions – but he became aware of his situation and soon put a move on Norris to start applying the pressure on the Ferraris.
Ferrari rather gifted Hamilton the opportunity to get past when, during the second stage of pitstops, Carlos Sainz dropped out of entering the pitlane at the last minute while ahead of Hamilton. This gave Hamilton an undercut for a second set of hard tyres as the Ferrari duo stopped later, having lost grip on their first set of the Pirelli as the stint progressed.
Hamilton then made a move on Verstappen with apparent ease at the end of lap 31, putting him just under ten seconds behind Russell.
Russell attempted to maintain the gap, but Hamilton was closing it at a decent rate – the gap fell to 7.1 seconds by the start of lap 40, and 5.7 seconds two laps later, but it was at this point where Hamilton’s tyres began to grain – and the gap stabilised in Russell’s favour.
This ensured Russell could claim a second victory of this season, and led home a Mercedes 1-2.
So a fantastic double podium for Mercedes and it was a solid drive for George Russell to take race victory at Las Vegas. As for Max Verstappen, he finished ahead of his title rival to secure his fourth drivers’ title to equal Sebastian Vettel’s achievements at Red Bull Racing. Well done Super Max!
Las Vegas Grand Prix, race results:
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:22:05.969
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +7.313s
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +11.906s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +14.283s
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull +16.582s
6 Lando Norris McLaren +43.385s
7 Oscar Piastri McLaren +51.365s
8 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +59.808s
9 Yuki Tsunoda RB +62.808s
10 Sergio Perez Red Bull +63.114s
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +69.195s
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas +69.803s
13 Zhou Guanyu Sauber +74.085s
14 Franco Colapinto Williams +75.172s
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +84.102s
16 Liam Lawson RB +91.005s
17 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1 lap
18 Valtteri Bottas Sauber +1 lap
Alexander Albon Williams DNF
Pierre Gasly Alpine DNF
Max Verstappen became a four-time world champion with an assured drive to fifth place during Saturday night’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, while pole-sitter George Russell and the charging Lewis Hamilton earned a one-two finish for Mercedes.
Verstappen entered the 50-lap encounter knowing that all he needed to do was keep title rival Lando Norris behind him to secure another crown, which the Dutchman achieved by holding position into the first corner and gradually pulling away from the McLaren driver.
Having held a podium spot after the second round of pit stops, Verstappen opted against a fight when the Ferraris arrived at the rear of his Red Bull in the closing laps – both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finding a way past before the chequered flag.
At the front, Russell expertly managed a tricky race in cool, slippery conditions, keeping a fast-starting Leclerc at bay in the early laps – the latter running into tyre troubles as a result of that aggression – and controlling proceedings thereafter.
Hamilton bounced back from a challenging conclusion to qualifying, which left him 10th on the grid, to work his way through the field and back up team mate Russell, whose win marked the first Mercedes triumph since July’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Norris made a successful bid for the fastest lap in the dying moments as he took sixth, and mathematically dropped out of championship contention, with team mate Oscar Piastri crossing the line seventh after a time penalty for jumping the start.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-crowned-champion-as-russell-heads-mercedes-1-2-in-las-vegas.3TZdhZEthj8sADUPU8p6Ni
Max Verstappen admitted to feeling “relieved” after securing his fourth Formula 1 title, having come under heavy pressure during the middle of the 2024 season.
A haul of seven grand prix wins from the opening 10 races strongly suggested that Verstappen was in line for another uncontested run to the championship, particularly as the competition around him looked error-prone.
But McLaren started to pile on the pressure over the second half of the year through Lando Norris, having slowly built on his maiden win in Miami and having emerged from the summer in good form.
Red Bull, for its part, had started to struggle with balance issues – leading Verstappen to remark at that point in the season that it would be difficult for the team to retain its grasp of both titles.
“It’s been a long season, and of course we started off amazing – it was almost like cruising, but then we had a tough run,” Verstappen said.
“But as a team, you know, we kept it together. We kept working on improvements, and we pulled it over the line. I’m incredibly proud of everyone, what they have done for me.
“To stand here as a four-time world champion is of course something that I never thought was possible. So, yeah, at the moment just feeling relieved in a way, but also very proud.”
“It was a very challenging season. I think also as a person, at times, it’s very challenging and I had to be calm.
“I think in a way, I still preferred last season; I enjoyed that a lot, but I think this season definitely has lessons that I’m very proud of. We handled it also as a team so, in a way, that makes it also very special and a beautiful season.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-relieved-to-clinch-2024-f1-title-/10676012/
Lewis Hamilton says a Formula 1 victory at the Las Vegas Grand Prix would have been “a breeze” if he had been able to put a lap together in qualifying on Friday.
The Briton made errors on both flying laps in Q3, having locked up on his first attempt at Turn 14 and then had a slide at Turn 4 on his second – which ultimately led to that time’s deletion.
Hamilton’s fastest lap from Q2 would have been good enough for third on the grid, but he instead started from 10th and had ground to make up; early passes on Nico Hulkenberg, Oscar Piastri, and Yuki Tsunoda helped bring him into contention.
He then displayed stronger pace over the other frontrunners, as Mercedes appeared to be at home on the cooler, low-grip track surface, although an attempt to close in on his winning team-mate George Russell eventually stalled out.
“That was great,” Hamilton remarked. “Firstly I’ve got to say a big congratulations to Max winning the championship, still with several races to go.
“And if I’d done my job yesterday, it would have been a breeze today. But it’s okay. I had fun coming from the back, coming from 10th and the team did a fantastic job.
“We don’t know why we were so quick this weekend, but that’s the best the car’s ever felt. So I’m grateful to have been a part of getting it to that point.
“Maybe the reason that we did so well is because it’s cold. If we’re in a hot climate, that’s where we struggle the most.
“If the car drives like that in the next couple of races, then I think we’ll be in a good spot to challenge the guys up front. The championship’s done, so now it’s just an all-out fight for the best positions possible.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-vegas-f1-win-would-have-been-a-breeze-without-qualifying-mis-steps/10676033/
George Russell expressed his delight and satisfaction after converting pole position into victory with a dominant performance during Saturday night’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Russell got away well off the line to hold the lead into Turn 1 and, after fending off an attack from the fast-starting Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc, took control of the 50-lap encounter.
A strong recovery from team mate Lewis Hamilton, who lined up back in 10th, meant Russell was kept on his toes in the closing laps, but he nonetheless had several seconds in hand when the chequered flag dropped.
Russell’s pole was the first for himself and Mercedes since the British Grand Prix, while his win marks the team’s first since the Belgian Grand Prix – both events held some four months ago in July.
Asked to reflect on his win, and how he intends to celebrate, Russell smiled: “I was planning to fly in a couple of hours but I’m definitely not getting on that flight! I’m going to enjoy this evening with all my team.
“It’s been a dream of a weekend. I don’t know how we’ve been so quick but I’m just riding this wave right now. To get the victory here, pole position, a dominant weekend, one-two with Lewis as well… We couldn’t have chosen a better place to make this happen.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/russell-overjoyed-with-dream-of-a-weekend-after-claiming-first-mercedes-pole.5OLaCMjeICrbEzkdGdMDjs
Lando Norris doubted that he would have won the 2024 Formula 1 title even with a perfect season, but was nonetheless proud of McLaren for bringing itself into contention over the season.
Norris’ dwindling chances of a title came to an end at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, having needed to outscore Max Verstappen by three points to take the fight to the following round in Qatar.
Red Bull driver Verstappen finished fifth ahead of Norris to complete his title defence as the Briton struggled with front graining over the race distance, although a late switch to softs helped him to swipe the fastest lap point.
Norris felt that it had been a big achievement for McLaren to climb up the pecking order into regular victory contention but said that, even with perfection in each race, Verstappen would have still been too difficult to beat over the season.
“I’m very proud of the whole team for putting up the fight for so long, for starting to catch up and catching up as much as we did. We were the fourth-best team at the beginning of the year,” Norris said.
“Red Bull have never been the fourth-best team or worst, let’s say, ever. We had just too big of a deficit to catch up from the beginning of the season, and we could not, because they’ve been too strong.
“Next year, we’ll go into the season with a car we think we can win a championship with from round one, and we’ve not been able to do that for the last six years, so I’m excited for that.
“But I’m proud of what we’ve achieved. My first win in Formula 1, my first three [wins], no one else is there fighting him. It’s been me and it’s been McLaren.
“Could we have done some things better? Absolutely. Do I think we could have won the championship even with a perfect season? I don’t. So I’m happy to finish second.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/norris-perfect-season-wouldnt-have-been-enough-to-beat-verstappen-to-f1-title/10676057/