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Max Verstappen is still technically in it to win the Formula One Drivers’ Championship.
Verstappen kept his “drive for five” consecutive titles alive with a commanding victory at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday.
It was Verstappen’s 69th career win as his fortunes continued at the famous Las Vegas strip. The Red Bull driver won the inaugural race in 2023 and finished fifth last year when he won his fourth straight world championship.
Verstappen started second on the grid with points leader Lando Norris in pole position ahead of him. Norris made a mistake soon after the start as he swooped to cover Verstappen and overshot the turn in the first corner. This untimely mistake allowed not only Verstappen but also Mercedes driver George Russell to take advantage as McLaren dropped to third.
“I just broke late,” Norris said on the Sky Sports broadcast. “That was my (expletive).”
It wasn’t until lap 35 that Norris was finally able to overtake Russell and chase Verstappen for the lead, with a gap of around five seconds between them.
The gap turned into a chasm through the final 15 laps, however, as Norris looked to be driving cautiously while Verstappen jetted to the finish line, winning by 20.741 seconds.
Russell rounded out the podium in third.
It’s still an advantage for Norris as he leaves Las Vegas with a 32-point lead over McLaren team-mate Oscar Pastry, who finished fourth, and 42 points ahead of Verstappen.
With a maximum of 58 points up for grabs over the last two races and a sprint, it may still be too little, too late for Verstappen as he will need to win and the unfortunate strike will be Norris and Pastry.
Verstappen may have Nick Pappagiorgio’s luck in Vegas, but will that carry over to Qatar and Abu Dhabi?
Still, it’s surprising to see Verstappen in the hunt. Go back to the Hungarian Grand Prix in early August, when Verstappen was 97 points behind Pastry. Since then, Verstappen has finished on the podium in eight straight races, with four victories along the way.
It’s also crazy that Verstappen single-handedly keeps Red Bull in third place in the constructors’ championship within reach of second-placed Mercedes. It might not mean much to Verstappen, but the extra prize money at the team’s headquarters in Milton Keynes gives Bean counters back.
It remains a possibility that Norris can secure his first world championship.
Things looked great for Norris on Friday as he qualified on the pole position for the seventh time this season and third in a row with a flying lap that was nearly a full second faster than anyone else until a late slide during the final sector. Even with a snap of oversteer, Norris still crossed the line. 323 faster than Verstappen, who also surprised the pole setter himself.
“No one else got a lap or what?” Norris said to race engineering director Will Joseph on team radio.
It was also a milestone week for Norris as he became the first driver to compete in his first 150 GPs with the same team and tied David Coulthard for the most starts with McLaren. Although Norris just turned 26 earlier this month, let’s not forget that this is his seventh season with the team, and his loyalty has been rewarded with a car worthy of a world championship.
“It’s crazy, it’s a big number, for McLaren to compete in DC. Qatar will be 151 – I don’t know what the word would be – the most racing driver for McLaren?” Norris told reporters earlier in the week.
He added: “It’s something I’m very proud of, it’s an achievement, 150 in F1, it’s my dream. It’s been my dream since I was a kid. It’s incredible to get this far and time definitely flies.”
He also shared in a recent interview the impact Sebastian Vettel has had on his career. Norris said the four-time world champion was someone he grew up watching as a kid (now that must make you feel old) and “always chatting, laughing, drinking coffee, whatever.”
Ironically, Piastri’s manager is Mark Webber, Vettel’s Red Bull teammate and on-track rival. The Vettel-Webber rivalry reached its boiling point in 2013 when Vettel ignored team orders and overtook Webber en route to victory as “Multi 21, Seb” entered F1 lore.
A Vettel vs Webber proxy fight was not on my bingo card at the start of the season.
Piastri must have realized he was in Bali, as he was pinballed by Liam Lawson when the Racing Bulls driver closed through turn one on the opening lap.
Fortunately, Piastri did not sustain the damage – although how the laws escaped without a penalty, is a mystery without touching it as a lap as an event.
Piastri recovered but could never find his feet on the low-grip track as he slipped behind Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, who had made a mega-drive from 17th on the grid to finish fifth.
It’s not that Piastri has been terrible, but he’s only had one podium finish in the last seven races, which, simply put, isn’t championship material.
It’s been a career year for Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari for all the wrong reasons.
The seven-time world champion qualified last, marking the first time Hamilton was too slow on the straight for a race in his illustrious career.
Hamilton also became the slowest Ferrari driver in qualifying since Giancarlo Fischiella at the 2009 Abu Dhabi GP. Oops.
The 40-year-old also holds a dubious team record and the driver who has gone the longest since his Ferrari debut without a GP podium at 20 races (and counting). Hamilton has never gone a full season without scoring at least one podium, with his most recent coming a year ago in Vegas, when he finished runner-up to Mercedes teammate Russell.
Some miscommunication, all too familiar at Ferrari, stopped Hamilton on his final flying lap during Friday qualifying as his team told him too late that he could continue after crossing the line just before the buzzer.
Hamilton was promoted to 19th alongside Red Bull’s Yuki Sonoda, who started from the pit lane, and he wound through the pile-up carnage on the opening lap to sweep into 12th. He continued to climb, finishing 10th to take one point.
Meanwhile, Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc said on team radio that he was driving “like an animal” as he finished sixth.
It’s not a good sign when Ferrari executive chairman John Elkin publicly scolded both drivers to “focus on driving and talk less” – something that should have been addressed in person – after a double DNF in Brazil two weeks ago. Maybe he was trying to motivate them?
• We say it every year, but you gotta love the spray.
• As a bonus, Terry Crews driving a pink Lego Cadillac is something that could only happen in Vegas.
• Verstappen’s victory snapped a streak as pole setters won seven races in a row, one shy of the record. Fear not, 1976, your eight-straight streak is safe.
• Antonelli’s jump start was hardly remarkable, but it’s one of those zero-tolerance rules that rookie drivers will learn from. While Antonelli conceded a place after finishing due to a five-second penalty, it prevented Pastry from being able to chase down his Mercedes teammate Russell for the final spot on the podium. Now that’s teamwork.
• Canadian driver Lance Stoll had gone the entire season without a retirement until Saturday night. It wasn’t his fault, though. Saber’s Gabriel Bortoletto made a right turn in the Aston Martin and entered the first turn of the opening lap, dropping both out of the race.
