Max Verstappen mounted a remarkable offensive to claim F1 Las Vegas GP victory as McLaren suffered a stunning double disqualification, leaving the Formula 1 championship battle wide open.
The 2025 F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix unfolded as one of the most dramatic and talked-about races of the season, rounding off the year with incredible intensity and controversy on the dazzling Las Vegas Strip Circuit.
The race started with Lando Norris on pole position looking poised to consolidate his lead in the Drivers’ Championship.
However, Verstappen starting from second on the grid made an aggressive and decisive move into Turn 1, capitalizing on a rare mistake by Norris who braked too late and went wide, losing his lead immediately.
This set the tone for the race as the reigning world champion took control and never looked back, progressing to build a commanding lead that he would maintain for the entire race.
Meanwhile, George Russell overpowered Carlos Sainz off the line and followed suit overtaking Norris down the outside of Turn 3, forcing the McLaren to drop back to third.
Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri encountered early trouble and fell back from fifth to seventh after Gabriel Bortoleto and Lance Stroll made contact, with Yuki Tsunoda and Franco Colapinto also getting caught in the collision.
The incident forced Bortoleto and Stroll to retire, while Tsunoda was called in for repairs.
Piastri later collided with Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls at Turn 1 on the next lap which saw the McLaren sustain damage, forcing the Kiwi to also pit for repairs.
This triggered a Virtual Safety Car period to clear debris left at Turns 1, 2, 3 and 4, with the race later going back to green on Lap 4.
By Lap 5, the Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc had worked their way up through the field, with Hamilton up to 12th after starting last, while Leclerc clawed to seventh.
Hamilton was locked in a close battle for 11th with Alex Albon but the Williams ran into the Ferrari a couple of laps later, causing front wing damage that needed a stop for repairs.
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Albon was slapped with a five second time penalty for the incident as well as a reprimand for a starting procedure infringement, before retiring later in the race.
With the Anglo-Thai driver out, Hamilton’s nearest challenger was Kimi Antonelli who was given a five second time penalty for jumping his start from 17th.
Meanwhile, Verstappen methodically maintained his lead after executing a well-timed pit stop to switch to hard tires around the halfway mark, and rejoined the track with a slender advantage over Russell before pulling away.
By mid-race, Verstappen had extended his lead to over two seconds and continued to stretch it to five seconds by Lap 38 as he exploited the strategic mistakes of rival teams to his advantage.
With sixteen laps left, Norris battled back past Russell who encountered a steering issue that hampered his pace throughout the race.
However, his valiant efforts to catch the Red Bull faded away after McLaren ordered him to slip into extreme fuel-saving mode which saw his pace drop dramatically.
The strategy call cost Lando Norris around 14 seconds in the final four laps as Max Verstappen went on to set a series of fastest laps to ultimately take F1 Las Vegas GP victory with a blistering 21-second lead.
George Russell managed to hold off Oscar Piastri for the final podium spot, while Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli delivered a strong drive to finish fifth.
Charles Leclerc secured sixth place for Ferrari, followed by Carlos Sainz who delivered a solid points finish for Williams, while Isack Hadjar, Nico Hülkenberg and Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top ten.
However, the post-race celebrations quickly turned sour for McLaren as FIA stewards launched an investigation into the skid blocks wear on both cars – a critical technical regulation designed to limit underbody damage and aerodynamic advantages.
It was determined that both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s cars had excessive wear, effectively getting McLaren disqualified from the race.
This decision elevated Russell to second place, while Antonelli seized the final podium spot, with positions shuffled up for other teams behind them.
The disqualification was a massive blow to McLaren’s championship hopes and dramatically tightened the points standings, leaving Verstappen, Piastri, and Norris locked in a fierce battle with only two races to go.
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