Max Verstappen made the most of Lando Norris’ early error to dominate the Las Vegas Grand Prix, claiming his sixth victory of the 2025 season. Lando Norris, now closing the gap in the championship, finished second ahead of George Russell, who was hampered by a steering issue. Oscar Piastri could only manage fourth, just ahead of a remarkable recovery drive from Andrea Kimi Antonelli, while Charles Leclerc brought home sixth for Ferrari.
After a wet qualifying session that caught everyone by surprise, Sunday in Las Vegas offered clear skies and a dry, straightforward race. The only real turning point came at the start, when an early incident reshaped the race and put Verstappen in prime position to take the lead and fly to his sixth win of the season, just one fewer than the two McLaren drivers ahead in the championship.
A dramatic start on the Strip
On the opening lap, Norris attempted to defend his pole position from the previous day, trying to block Verstappen. In doing so, he ended up on the dirty side of the track, missed the braking point, and ran wide through Turn 1. The slip dropped him from first to third, also behind George Russell, who cleverly took advantage of the situation with an outside move at Turn 3. Most importantly, the error gave Verstappen clear air at the front, allowing him to dictate the pace and manage his tyres effectively.
In the early laps, George Russell looked capable of challenging Max Verstappen, but when the pit wall gave the Red Bull driver the green light to increase his pace, Verstappen quickly extended his lead, building a safe gap over his rivals. Notably, George Russell was one of the first frontrunners to pit, switching to hard tyres earlier than his competitors.
Race control and tyre management
From that point on, Verstappen proved untouchable, crossing the line with roughly a twenty-second advantage over Norris, who struggled in the final laps. The Briton initially had difficulty bringing his medium tyres up to temperature but found better stability with the hard tyres, allowing him to overtake George Russell, who was facing his own issues. Despite this, nothing could threaten Verstappen, who immediately pushed again once cleared by his team to further extend the lead.
Despite ongoing medium-tyre struggles and a pre-existing steering problem from qualifying, Russell held onto third, securing valuable points for Mercedes. He closed in on Norris in the closing laps, likely hindered by pushing too hard earlier in his stint, but the positions remained unchanged with McLaren in second and Mercedes third.
Piastri and Antonelli in the midfield battle
Oscar Piastri could not go beyond fourth place in a largely uneventful race for him. He spent much of the first stint stuck behind Isack Hadjar and was even overtaken by Charles Leclerc, though he regained the position thanks to an early undercut onto hard tyres. In the second half of the race, the Australian stayed close to Andrea Kimi Antonelli, using DRS to defend from Leclerc, but his race offered few highlights.
After a disastrous qualifying, where Ferrari managed only ninth due to tyre struggles, Charles Leclerc found better pace in the dry. The Monegasque driver spent the opening stint attacking on medium tyres, using strong pace to pass Piastri and re-enter the battle for fourth place. However, extending the stint by a few laps left him vulnerable to Piastri’s undercut, and he could not recover the position by the finish. In fact, Charles Leclerc lost fifth to Kimi Antonelli by just two-tenths, despite the Italian serving a grid penalty for moving before the lights went out.
For Antonelli, it was a brilliant comeback after being eliminated in Q1, culminating in fifth place and delivering important points to Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship. Seventh went to Carlos Sainz, who maximized the potential of the Williams. On the dry track, defending the position gained in the wet was difficult, and while he had a strong first stint on medium tyres, Sainz struggled on the hard tyre against the pace of the top teams. Nevertheless, he managed to put the Williams ahead in the midfield battle once again.
The top ten was completed by Isack Hadjar with Racing Bulls, Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber, and Lewis Hamilton, who made a strong recovery to finish tenth after starting from the last position on the grid.
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