At the first stop of the last triple weekend, Norris could have taken a much bigger step towards the world championship title, but an eventful start mixed up the cards a bit. Lando Norris, who is leading the overall world championship, was able to start from first place at the Grand Prix in Las Vegas. The defending champion Max Verstappen started next to him, and behind them in the second row Carlos Sainz Jr. and George Russell waited for the red lights to go out. Oscar Piastri, who was chasing his teammate, took the fifth starting spot.
At the start, Norris did well, but he drifted in the first corner, which Verstappen took advantage of to pass him, and then Russell ordered the British driver behind him, who fell back to third place. Sainz turned in fourth, but Piastri was unlucky, losing two positions in the confusion after the start. Bearman, on the other hand, improved six places, and Leclerc just managed to stay in the top ten.
In the early stages of the race, a virtual safety car phase came into force, it turned out that Lawson collided with Piastri and Bortoleto collided with Stroll, who ended up crashing out of the race. After the restriction, Verstappen led confidently ahead of Russell, Norris, Sainz, Hadjar, Piastri, Bearman, Leclerc, Alonso and Hülkenberg. Hamilton was in twelfth place.
Throughout the race, Verstappen steadily increased his advantage over Russell while Norris held onto third place. Leclerc, on the other hand, accelerated, overtook Piastri and Hadjar, and Albon received a penalty for his collision with Hamilton. Several drivers, including Russell, Piastri and Hadjar, also made pit changes, while Hamilton and Hülkenberg also received fresh tyres. Norris moved up to second after overtaking Russell, who came in front of him after the changes. The overall moderately eventful race was won by Verstappen with a confident advantage over Norris, who moved a little towards the world championship title, but not nearly as much as he would have liked.
The last two race weekends will certainly be about the duel between the two McLarens, this weekend was also like that, even though there were some great performances, Verstappen took a confident victory, winning with an advantage of more than 20 seconds, it is also worth highlighting Kimi Antonelli, he raced brilliantly, even though in the end he ended up behind Piastri due to a penalty.
