Verstappen Crowned; Silver Arrows Soar
Max Verstappen clinched his fourth driver’s championship title on a spectacular event in Vegas, a straightforward affair for the flying Dutchman as he led Lando Norris from start to finish, managing the race well on the way to a fifth place finish.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe entire weekend was dominated by the extreme pace of Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton recovered from his poor qualifying to climb to second place from 10th on the grid while George Russell survived some early pressure from Charles Leclerc and led almost the entire race, only giving up P1 briefly to his teammate while he pitted.
It was a slow day at the office for McLaren racing, although Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri both scored points, they came down in sixth and seventh and they never looked competitive in the battle for this race and CEO Zak Brown will surely be incensed at losing big points to Ferrari in the Constructor’s Championship.
Norris pitted for soft tires in a late attempt at the fastest lap which secured him and his team an extra point.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe two red cars of Scuderia performed strongly with Sainz stealing the third place podium finish late on in the race and Leclerc right behind him in fourth, Ferrari will be quietly confident of stretching out their title fight until the final outing in Abu Dhabi.
The exciting outing in Vegas saw plenty of overtakes in an enlarged DRS zone and saw Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon both retire due to engine problems.
