Max Verstappen scored his 69th Formula 1 victory by winning the Las Vegas Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris and George Russell. Norris takes another step towards the world title with two races remaining since Piastri could not do better than 4th.
Lando Norris comes close. If Max Verstappen won the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Sunday, his 69th career victory, 22nd round of the 2025 Formula 1 season ahead of Lando Norris and George Russell, it is the McLaren driver who makes the big operation of the day. Fourth, Oscar Piastri concedes another six points to his teammate and now finds himself 30 points behind Norris with two races remaining (Qatar and Abu Dhabi) while Verstappen is still 42 points behind.
Verstappen in the lead at the first corner
On pole, Lando Norris wanted to keep the lead at the first corner but by wanting to close the door on Max Verstappen, the Briton forgot to take the corner. The Dutchman then took the lead in front of George Russell who took advantage of the McLaren’s small gap. Behind, Bortoleto transformed into a bowling ball and created numerous incidents with Lawson, Stroll and Piastri.
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A first virtual safety car was then deployed to clean the track. The race was quickly restarted with a very fast Verstappen and a Norris unable to keep up with the pace of the leaders at first. Behind, in the title race, Oscar Piastri was already dropped. Fifth on the grid, he quickly fell back to 6th then to 7th overtaken by Charles Leclerc while in front Russell tried to put pressure on Verstappen. Without success.
A one-stop strategy
The strategies were then put in place and quickly, the two stops were forgotten as the degradation of the rubber was low. On lap 17, Russell was the first to stop among the leaders to put on the hard tires. He was imitated by Norris on lap 22 and by Verstappen on lap 25. This caused no change in the top 3. Untouchable and in total control with his Red Bull, the Dutchman confirmed his domination and headed towards a 69th victory in front of Lando Norris who found the fault on Russell on lap 34 with fresher tires. The podium was sealed.
Behind, Antonelli validated a superb comeback. 17th on the grid, the Italian, penalized by five seconds for moving on the grid, took advantage of the first virtual safety car to make his stop and put the tough guys behind. He pushed to the end, resisted Piastri at the end of the race, to cross the finish line 4th and be reclassified 5th, after the application of his penalty, behind Piastri but in front of Leclerc following a finish of the race carried out at a crazy pace.
Fourth, Piastri still drops six points to Norris in the title race. A new blow for the Australian who finds himself 30 points behind his rival with 58 units remaining. Finally, a word about the French. Isack Hadjar is the only Frenchman to place in the top 10 with an eighth place from the Racing Bulls driver. Esteban Ocon finished 11th with his Haas while Pierre Gasly finished 15th. No rest for the drivers who head straight to Qatar for a sprint weekend next week with a potential first world title for Lando Norris.
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