Las Vegas, U.S.A. – Having such a dominant lead early-on in the season, Max Verstappen had given himself every chance of winning yet another World Championship. However, it was a long season with performance peaks and troughs for the Team, and the Dutchman had to fight on every lap to retain the Number 1 on his car for next season.
As the lights went out, polesitter George Russell got away well to maintain his lead, but it was the Monegasque Ferrari driver who reacted best. Leclerc powered past Pierre Gasly as the field headed through Turn 1.
However, all eyes were on Max and his title rival, Lando Norris. The pair got away well from fifth and sixth but going into Turn 1, Norris drew alongside on the inside. Max won the battle of wits and breaked later, maintaining control on the slippery surface.
That meant the championship leader held a wide line initially, but that offered the inside line heading into Turn 2, which Max used to slam the door shut.
Further back, Checo, starting from 15th on hard tyres, lost ground at the start. However, he soon recovered as his tyres got to their optimal temperature and began to make his way through the pack.
On lap four, meanwhile, Max closed right up to Gasly, and on the way into Turn 14, he muscled his way past the Frenchman to take fourth place.
Further ahead, Leclerc, who had been pushing hard to get past Russell, began to struggle for grip, and after being passed by his teammate Sainz, the Monegasque was soon in Max’s sights.
On lap 8 he roared past the Ferrari driver to claim P3. Behind him, Norris made his way past Gasly to take fifth place and keep his fading championship hopes alive.
On lap 10, both Leclerc and Norris were called to the pits for fresh tyres and both took on hard tyres. On the following lap, Sainz was also called in, but Max was in no mood to wait, and once again the Dutchman closed in on Las Vegas Boulevard and powered past the Spaniard to take second place.
Max made his own pit stop on lap 12, and bolted on a set of hard tyres in a rapid two-second stop. He rejoined in sixth place, but crucially ahead of both Ferraris and ahead of Norris.
As those who started the race on medium-tyres began to flood into pit lane, Checo, still on his starting hard tyres, roared up the order. By lap 14 the Mexican was up to second place, five seconds behind Russell, who had made his pit stop.
As the pit stops played out, Max rose again, to third place, just over a second behind Checo, and he soon moved over to allow Max to ease past to reclaim second.
With his tyres beginning to fade, Checo made his first stop on lap 18, and after he took on a set of medium tyres he dropped back to 14th. However it didn’t take him long to get moving up the order. By lap 25 he had past Liam Lawson, and with Alex Albon heading into the pit, Checo was up to 10th.
The second round of stops then began to play out, and when the order shook out once again, Russell still led, 11 seconds clear of hard-charging teammate Lewis Hamilton, with Max in third ahead of Sainz, Leclerc, and Norris.
Checo, meanwhile, had made his final stop of the race, and after dropping back to 15th, he once again began to haul his way forward.
On lap 38 he pulled off what was undoubtedly the move of the race when he darted up the inside of the battling Kevin Magnussen and Liam Lawson for an epic double overtake which helped him to take P10 at the flag.
Further ahead, Max was managing the remainder of the race as he had built a 12-second gap to Norris. He made a tactical decision not to risk fighting the two Ferraris, who were pushing hard against one another for the final podium position, in order to guarantee himself the points he required for the championship.
Max eventually came home in fifth place almost 10 seconds ahead of Norris to take his fourth consecutive World Drivers’ Championship title.
Max Verstappen, securing another World Championship, said “It has been quite a year and I’m proud of how we handled everything as a Team. We started off the season really strong and then it became quite tough; we never wanted to give up and got the best result we could, barely made any mistakes and that is what you need to win a title.”
Sergio Pérez, said “Congratulations to Max, I think he has had the best season I have ever seen from a driver, because a lot of the time we did not have the best car and Max made the difference a lot of weekends. The way he pushed the Team forwards, he was just a pure force and I think this has been the best year from him in the four we have been together. He has been tremendous, well done to him for all the success he has had, he deserves it.
“For me today, I think the pace was the positive thing about the race, but unfortunately, we may have got the strategy wrong because we went out on the hard initially when the track was at it’s worse.”