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Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen highlights ‘approach’ as title dream remains alive

Max Verstappen remains in title contention after winning in Las Vegas.

Verstappen Las Vegas win
Article
To news overview © XPBimages

Max Verstappen has highlighted the approach himself and Red Bull are taking, with victory in the Las Vegas Grand Prix having kept his chances alive of a record-equalling fifth consecutive F1 drivers' title.

Verstappen cruised to victory in Las Vegas from second on the grid after getting past Norris at the first corner, following a mistake by the Briton. 

Norris moved across the circuit aggressively on the run into the first corner to block Verstappen; however, he ran incredibly wide and went off the circuit. 

This opened the door to Verstappen, who breezed into the lead and never looked back. He controlled the race at the front, securing victory by 21 seconds over Norris who was forced to save fuel on the final laps.

"Yeah, it was good," said Verstappen, discussing the race. "Of course, with [what happened in] practice and not really knowing what the tyres were going to do, even in the race, I think you could see everyone just trying to find a rhythm, see how much you could push. 

"Especially in the first stint because you're on the more fragile tyre. It worked really well. Normally this race is always a tough one for us. We are normally not that great on tyres. 

"But today it seemed like we had that a bit more under control, and I could push a little bit more and that just unlocked a bit more pace. I could stay out a bit longer and split the race basically in half. That definitely helped a lot. 

"The car was working pretty well, much more to my liking. Then it was at the end, quite a decent gap. But yeah, we just every lap, just feeling comfortable and not taking too much out of the tyre."

Verstappen title chances

The result keeps Verstappen in title contention going into next weekend's Qatar Grand Prix, although he must outscore Norris by 17 points to remain in the fight in Abu Dhabi.

Asked if he will keep taking the title fight one race at a time, Verstappen answered: "I think that's the better approach. It's still a big gap. 

"But, we always try to just maximise everything that we've got. And this weekend, that was first, and yeah, the upcoming weekends we will again try to win the race. 

"At the end of Abu Dhabi, we'll see where we end up. But I'm very proud of everyone. We've had a really up and down season and tough times, but also really beautiful moments, and we learned a lot throughout the whole season, and that's also very valuable for the upcoming years. 

"So that's something that we just have to cling on to. And just try to improve even more to even comeback stronger for next year, even to put up a fight from the start of the year in the championship. So we're enjoying it now and then we'll see next week what we can do again."

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BREAKING Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri disqualified from Las Vegas Grand Prix