F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix 2025 Recap: Verstappen untouchable, keeps championship dream alive

Max Verstappen put in one of his most dominant drives of the season to win the 2025 Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s reigning world champion gave the McLaren drivers no chance, with pole-sitter Lando Norris making a big error on the opening lap to run himself out of contention for the win. While Norris was still able to finish second, Mercedes’ George Russell grabbed the final spot on the podium. 

Verstappen’s win keeps his Drivers’ Championship hopes alive, as Norris still hasn’t been able to lock in the title. Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth, is now 30 points behind his teammate with two races to go, while Verstappen is 42 points behind Norris.

A charging Max Verstappen stole first place from the pole-sitting Lando Norris at Turn 1 on the opening lap itself. Going wide, Norris dropped two places, with George Russell also picking him off.

Like Norris, Oscar Piastri also lost places as the Virtual Safety Car came out on the second lap after Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto smashed into the back of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, which ended both their outings.

As the race resumed, Russell was all over Verstappen’s gearbox but was unable to overtake him. By Lap 10, Verstappen had a lead of almost two seconds over Russell, with Norris over two seconds behind.

On Lap 13, Charles Leclerc breezed past Piastri going into Turn 15 to move into P6. Leclerc was flying through the field and sailed past Isack Hadjar for P5 a lap later, this time at Turn 14. Further down the grid, his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, was fighting with Alex Albon for P12.

As Hamilton tried to go around Albon, the latter went into the back of his car and damaged his front wing, leaving debris all over the track, which brought out the Virtual Safety Car again. Piastri picked off Hadjar for P6 after the restart.

On Lap 18, Russell became the first one to hit the pits and re-joined in P7. Haas’ Ollie Bearman followed him into the pits on the same lap, as the next few laps saw cars slowly come in for their stops. Piastri came in on Lap 22, rejoining in P10, with Norris following him into the pits the following lap.

Norris re-joined in P4 after his stop, with Leclerc moving to P2 and Russell behind him. Verstappen, who was leading the race virtually undisturbed, got his first pit stop out of the way on Lap 26 and came out in P1, a second and a half clear of Russell in second.

As the race entered its final 15 laps, a charging Norris got Russell going into Turn 15 and found himself almost five seconds behind Verstappen. Further down the grid, Piastri, Leclerc, and Kimi Antonelli fought for P4, with the rookie Italian putting in a stellar defence to keep the two more experienced drivers behind him. 

As the race entered Lap 40, Verstappen was maintaining a lead of over five seconds from Norris, with third-placed Russell having fallen into a no-man’s zone behind them. McLaren, who had told Norris that they would “go get Verstappen” when Norris passed Russell, were ultimately not able to get anywhere close to the reigning world champion, who eased to a comfortable win and finished 18 seconds ahead of Norris, who was left nursing an issue in the final few laps.

Russell, despite not having much to do for the final third of the race, finished third, with Piastri finishing fourth after Antonelli was handed a five-second penalty for a false start. Leclerc finished sixth, with Carlos Sainz, Isack Hadjar, Nico Hülkenberg, and Hamilton rounding out the points places. 

With the first race of the season-ending triple-header out of the way, the Formula One grid moves to the Middle East to see out the year, with Qatar hosting the penultimate race.

A Sprint weekend means there will be more points up for grabs for Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri to make the title race even more exciting. The Drivers’ Championship remains open to three drivers, with leader Lando Norris, as well as Piastri and Verstappen behind him, all with a shot at the title.

We may very well see the title race go down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.