Verstappen wins F1 title as Russell claims Las Vegas victory

Max Verstappen was crowned a four-time F1 world champion with a fifth-place finish in the Las Vegas Grand Prix as George Russell led a Mercedes one-two. 

Knowing he simply needed to finish ahead of sole remaining title rival Lando Norris to win his fourth straight title, Verstappen was always in title-winning position throughout the 50-lap race. 

He quickly passed Pierre Gasly's Alpine as Norris got stuck behind the Frenchman, and moved into the podium places after the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz overcooked their tyres and fell back from leader Russell. 

Russell only squandered the lead to Lewis Hamilton through the first round of pit-stops, but otherwise dominated for a third career grand prix win as Hamilton roared up to second place following his 10th place starting position. 

Hamilton carved chunks of time out of Russell following the final pit-stops of a high-tyre degradation race, but ultimately fell short of passing his team-mate by about seven seconds. 

Verstappen took third with Sainz leading home Leclerc in fifth as Norris took an anonymous sixth place.

The title means Verstappen joins Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton as drivers to win at least four titles.

At lights out, Russell held position as Leclerc moved up to second at Turn 3 after hugging the inside line as Sainz and Pierre Gasly ran wide.

The Ferrari attacked Russell in the early laps, but was unable to get past as his medium tyres lost performance as he then fell into the clutches of Sainz and the fast Verstappen, who dispatched Gasly at Turn 14 on Lap 4 to put a car buffer between himself and Norris.

Verstappen was into second place by Lap 10, some 9.0s behind Russell, with the Red Bull pitting for hard tyres at the end of lap 11, rejoining in P7. 

He came out ahead of both Ferraris and Norris, but stuck in midfield traffic as Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen had yet to stop. 

Leader Russell pitted at the end of Lap 12 and regained his P1 once Hamilton stopped next time by, as he quickly then passed Norris. 

On Lap 16, Perez, who had yet to stop, waved Verstappen through for P2, stopping at the end of the next tour for mediums having started on hards.

By Lap 27, the field prepared for their second stops, with Verstappen and Hamilton both stopping for a fresh set of hards as Sainz feigned to pit, and was lucky to avoid a penalty after cutting through the pit-entry.

Russell stopped on Lap 33, by which time Hamilton had cleared Verstappen and set off after his team-mate. 

On Lap 42, Sainz passed Verstappen for third place, with Leclerc demoting the Red Bull to fifth later, but it was enough for the Dutchman to retain his title. 

Norris lead home Oscar Piastri in sixth and seventh on a quiet evening for McLaren, as Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso rounded out the points. 

Perez was 11th ahead of Magnussen whilst Franco Colapinto was cleared to race following his 50G impact in qualifying, as he took 13th.

Esteban Ocon was 14th ahead of Zhou Guanyu and Lance Stroll who suffered a long pit-stop a as Liam Lawson and Bottas were the final classified finishers.

The only two retirements were Alex Albon of Williams and third-place on the grid Gasly, who suffered an engine failure aboard his Alpine.