With two weekends remaining in Formula One 2024, the Constructor’s Championship is still in play.
LAS VEGAS, Nevada, U.S.A.—After failing to stay out in front in the last race, George Russell had a perfect night in the streets of this famous city, taking a deserving win by just over seven seconds ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in third.
George Russell: I was planning on flying in a couple of hours, but I’m not getting on that flight, and I’m going to enjoy this evening with my entire team. It has been a dream weekend. I don’t know how we’ve been this quick, but I’m riding the wave right now. Vegas is just a crazy, crazy place. When you’re driving with all of this in the background, it’s such a … I can’t even describe this place, so to get a victory here, pole position, and dominant weekend – a one-two with Lewis as well, we couldn’t have chosen a better place to make this happen.
But the main story of the evening was the fifth-place finish of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who, with this finish, put him 72 points ahead of his rival, McLaren’s Lando Norris. That finish clinched his fourth consecutive world championship, which ties another driver from this famous team, Sebastian Vettel, who took the same number of titles in a row.
Max Verstappen: I’m very proud of this season because for most of the season, I would say for 70% of the season, we didn’t have the fastest car, but we still extended our lead. I would say that from Miami onwards, most of the time, we were not the quickest anymore, and Miami is still very early in the season. So, 50 and 60 points can easily be overturned if you keep maximizing results and do not do anything crazy. Anything is possible, so I always had that in the back of my mind, but at the same time, I just focused on what I could control within the team and gave it everything every weekend.
Russell led the race right from the start. Considering the order change due to scheduled pit stops, the Briton had no trouble retaining the lead. With Hamilton closing the gap late in the race, it was too late to catch his teammate. Nevertheless, the team from Brackley earned a 1-2 finish following a rough start to the season.
Charles Leclerc fought his teammate for most of the race but had to settle for fourth, while Norris had to finish behind Verstappen to keep his championship hopes alive but could only manage sixth. Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri took seventh, while Haas F1’s Nico Hulkenberg finished in eighth ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in ninth. Sergio Perez put his Red Bull in tenth.
Two cars failed to finish the race. Pierre Gasly retired his car on lap 16, while Alex Albon ended his race with Williams out ten laps later. Both had power unit issues.
With the Driver’s title already wrapped up, the current issue is the Constructor’s Championship. McLaren leads Ferrari by 24 points, while Red Bull is third, 29 points behind the Scuderia. Another battle is for the sixth position. Haas now leads Alpine by one point, with RB trailing.
Two events remain in the Formula One 2024 season: the Qatar Airways Qatar Grand Prix, which will be held next weekend, followed immediately by the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, scheduled for December 6-8.
