Max Verstappen clinched his fourth consecutive World Drivers’ Championship with a fifth-place finish at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and George Russell led all 50 laps to complete a dream weekend for Mercedes.
Russell finished 7.093 ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton for his second Grand Prix victory of the season and the third of his career. Russell led by a wide margin for a majority of the race, but Hamilton was able to make a significant dent in that margin over the last 20 laps.
Mercedes ended the weekend having swept all three practice sessions, the pole, and the top two spots on the podium. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz rounded out the podium.
For Russell and Mercedes, there’s no better place than the Las Vegas Strip to celebrate the capping of an ideal Grand Prix.
“I was planning on flying in a couple of hours, but I’m definitely not getting on that flight,” Russell said. “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.
“Vegas is just a crazy, crazy place. And when you’re driving, you see all of this in the background. … I can’t even describe this place. To get a victory here, pole position, dominant weekend, one-two with Lewis as well. We couldn’t have chosen a better place to make this happen.”
Verstappen finished yesterday’s Grand Prix a spot ahead of Lando Norris in sixth, which put him an insurmountable 64 points ahead of Norris in the title chase and allowed him to clinch the championship in the season’s 22nd Grand Prix.
