Max Verstappen wraps up fourth straight driver's championship
Reuters
25/11/2024
Red Bull's Max Verstappen celebrates after winning the 2024 F1 world championship title, F1 - Las Vegas Grand Prix - Las Vegas Strip Circuit, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States - November 24, 2024. - REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
MAX Verstappen clinched his fourth consecutive World Drivers' Championship with a fifth-place finish at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday, and George Russell led all 50 laps to complete a dream weekend for Mercedes.
Russell finished 7.313 seconds 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 final 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 Sunday'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.
Verstappen became the third driver to clinch the WDC in Las Vegas. He joins Nelson Piquet (1981) and Keke Rosberg (1982), who did so in the only two editions of the Caesars Palace Grand Prix.
It brings to a close a turbulent championship push for Red Bull, which lost its chief engineer Adrian Newey in May amid a misconduct investigation surrounding team principal Christian Horner. Verstappen won seven of the first 10 races this season but has only won once since taking home the Spanish Grand Prix on June 23.
Norris and McLaren ended up providing a far more worthy championship battle than anyone, including Verstappen, could have imagined. One certainty for 2025 is that nobody will be overlooking Verstappen.
"I think in a way, of course, I still prefer last season," Verstappen said. "But I think this season definitely taught me a lot of lessons. I'm very proud of how we handled it as a team, so in a way, of course, that makes it all so very, very special and a beautiful season.
"If you look at next year right now, I think it's going to be a proper battle between a lot of cars."
Pierre Gasly suffered the first misfortune of the night as he lost his engine on the 16th lap. It was a heartbreaking end to a promising weekend for Gasly, who started third on the grid after a brilliant qualifying session in an attempt to reach the podium in a second consecutive Grand Prix.
Alex Albon was then forced to retire on lap 26, as a power unit issue ended a nightmarish weekend for Albon and Williams Racing that also saw Franco Colapinto suffer a hard crash in Friday's qualifying session.
It was a rough night for McLaren as a whole, as it lacked pace in both cars from the opening lap owing to rear wing issues. It was a costly performance in terms of clinching the Constructors' Championship, which will have to be decided in the final two races after Ferrari was able to get within 24 points.
Red Bull also made a dent in that margin and now also sits within striking distance, 53 points out going into Qatar.
