A year after clinching his fourth consecutive World Drivers’ Championship on the Strip, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen maintained a sliver of hope for a fifth with a stellar showing at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.After the FIA finished with its postrace inspections, those hopes grew exponentially with the disqualifications of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri because the thickness of the rearmost skid of both cars was less than the required thickness.When Verstappen concluded the postrace press conference on Saturday, he was 36 points back from Lando Norris and in third place in the standings despite notching eight straight podiums and three wins in his last four races. It was a distant thought, but he had to be happy with the performance of his Red Bull Team. Norris who had left the celebrations of the race believing he’d be in a championship-clinching situation in Qatar the following weekend will now have just a 24 point lead over Verstappen. Verstappen has matched Piastri with 366 points. Verstappen took advantage of a first-lap mishap by McLaren’s Norris to claim the checkered flag, putting himself in what would become the perfect position to capitalise on an engineering error from his rivals. Norris made a move that could only be described as recklessly aggressive in order to prevent Verstappen overtaking him inside. As a result, Norris briefly went off the track and rejoined in third place after Verstappen gained the lead and Mercedes’ George Russell moved into second.Norris regained second place from Russell on an uncontested overtake on Lap 34 and attempted to make a late push to surpass Verstappen for the win. But it proved to be a futile attempt, and Verstappen only lengthened the gap as Norris hung onto second place despite a late fuel shortage.Although his two-race win streak was snapped, Norris gained six more points on Piastri, taking a 30-point lead over his teammate atop the World Drivers’ Championship standings entering next week’s Qatar Grand Prix. Saturday’s win marks Verstappen’s eighth consecutive podium finish and his fourth win in the last seven Grand Prix. The four-time champion is still a contender for a fifth consecutive title. Over the next two weekends, 58 points will be awarded.
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2025-11-23 16:30:18
