Russell strikes gold in Vegas as Verstappen’s title comes at a canter

Of the eight drivers of the elite four teams who have towered over the remaining six other squads in the pit lane in 2024, George Russell could be forgiven for feeling like the forgotten man among them.

Max Verstappen, after all, is Max Verstappen. In a team that has generated more thousands of words of press coverage than any other this season, Sergio Perez has been responsible for many of them – for vastly different reasons to his team mate.

After years in the wilderness, McLaren have made their long-awaited return to regular contenders for victory and championships. Their drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been forced to bear the brunt of all the additional scrutiny that comes as a price for that.

At Ferrari, Carlos Sainz Jnr’s departure from the team has provided one of the more enthralling sagas of the season. In a year of several frustrations for Charles Leclerc, he also enjoyed three of his greatest moments of his career.

Then at Mercedes, this season will forever be defined by being Lewis Hamilton’s 12th and final campaign with them before the seven-times champion trades silver for scarlet in 2025. His drought-busting triumph at Silverstone and inherited victory at Spa provided some welcome final highlights in the most decorated team and driver partnership of all time.

Then there’s been Russell. Perez aside, the only driver among this group not to have racked up more than one win, thanks to his Spa disqualification. And his sole victory was overshadowed by two of his rivals clashing controversially.

But the Mercedes driver has grafted hard. His third season with a third straight car which has failed to deliver what his team expected and hoped for, Russell has been quietly consistent, only failing to finish outside of the top six on six out of the 19 grands prix he was classified in. But even after securing a front row start for the Brazilian Grand Prix and leading so much of it until a badly-timed Safety Car, Russell remained realistic about his chances of adding a second win before season’s end.

“Brazil was definitely a bit of a one-off, I think,” he admitted. “When it rains, it presents opportunities. And for ourself, it was an opportunity.

“I think we need to look back to the sprint qualifying and the sprint race for a bit of a fairer picture of where we are. And that was behind the front four teams.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

The city of Las Vegas welcomes two kinds of people – actual millionaires and those who see themselves as millionaires-in-waiting – and loves nothing more than to make fools of both.

After Mercedes completed three practice sessions around the frigid, dusty Las Vegas Strip Circuit as the quickest team in each, it would have been dangerous to assume the chips would fall their way in qualifying. But while Hamilton rolled snake eyes, ending up tenth on the grid, Russell hit the jackpot on his very last lap.

Starting from pole position for the third time in 2024, Russell was clear that it was about time he and Mercedes converted that chance into a win. But with the two Ferraris behind him – separated by Pierre Gasly’s Alpine – who had looked threatening in high-fuel mode in practice and were clearly running minimal downforce, it was set to be a long night for the pole winner.

On the grid, the top 14 drivers chose the medium compound, as would have been expected. In the only previous grand prix start at the circuit in 2023, Sainz had bungled his approach to turn one and bashed into a Mercedes ahead of him. Russell would have been hoping history would not repeat itself this time.

When the lights went out, Russell’s start was more than good enough for cover the inside before the braking zone, shielding his position from the Ferrari. Gasly looked to the outside of Sainz but the Ferrari driver failed to hit the apex of the left-hand turn, costing both him and the Alpine alongside. Leclerc hugged the inside and drew alongside his team mate. The inside line of turn two became the outside of turn three and Leclerc swept around his team mate to take second.

Russell led around the opening lap ahead of Leclerc, Sainz, Gasly and the two championship rivals Verstappen and Norris behind. While the Mercedes driver would have been pleased to keep the lead, he would not have enjoyed seeing both Ferraris in his mirrors.

The weekend’s earlier sessions had all been defined by tyre graining in the cool conditions. Leclerc looked eager to pass the Mercedes before that became a problem and pushed to get within DRS of the leader when the system was activated. Heading down the Strip on the fourth lap, the extremely fast Ferrari used DRS to force Russell to defend his lead into turn 14. When that failed to work, Leclerc tried again on the way to and around the final corner, but Russell resisted once more.

Whether it was the effort of attacking the Mercedes or being squeezed out onto the sandy outside of the first corner, Leclerc’s tyres suddenly gave up on him. He dropped out of DRS range of the Mercedes to two second back, while Sainz was now far closer to him behind. Struggling, Leclerc allowed his team mate through. But even with clear air, Sainz could not close on the leader ahead.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Instead, Ferrari were falling further back. Sainz was getting no closer to Russell while Leclerc lost third to Verstappen, who had gained fourth from Gasly around the time Leclerc had been pushing for the lead.

“We just struggled too much with graining, more than what we were anticipating,” Sainz later explained. “It meant that we couldn’t push on the tyres. We were having to save so much that we couldn’t use the pace of the car.”

Leclerc was the first of the front running drivers to pit at the end of lap nine, fitting hard tyres, followed one lap later by his team mate immediately after he had lost second place to Verstappen down the Strip. Verstappen was next in, rejoining still ahead of the Ferraris, while the Mercedes pair were the last to stop after Hamilton had gained several places from tenth on the grid.

Russell emerged comfortably in the lead from his stop, but the level of tyre wear had been so high that a second stop was looking increasingly inevitable. Not that the leader minded if that was the case.

“I knew from then on, the only way we would probably lose the victory is if I grained the tyres and opened them up,” Russell said. “So it was just a case of managing my pace, managing in the right corners and bringing it home.”

Hamilton had been reluctant to pit off his medium tyres but Mercedes gave him no choice, confident in the pace of their car. When Hamilton passed Norris for sixth position on lap 16 for what was effectively fifth place, he could perhaps appreciate his strategists’ call more.

Out front, Russell was comfortable in his pace and pulling away from Verstappen’s Red Bull behind. Having cleared Norris, Hamilton caught up to the Ferraris ahead of him, meaning Sainz was now the one under pressure. On lap 27, Sainz returned Leclerc’s earlier favour by letting him by into turn 14, but now had Hamilton right behind him. Both Sainz and Hamilton were called in and dived left into the pit entry road, but Ferrari then urgently told Sainz to stay out, forcing him to dart across the pit dividing line and back onto the race track.

That error by Ferrari meant that once Sainz completed his stop on the next lap, he emerged three seconds behind Hamilton. Leclerc was encouraged to stay out, while Verstappen, who had already pitted the same lap as Hamilton, was now being chased down by the Mercedes.

With his fiercest rival in his mirrors, champion-in-waiting Verstappen was encouraged to not “lose sight of our aim today” by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. He therefore offered no challenge to Hamilton, happy to give up second place in the pursuit of clinching his fourth world title.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Leclerc finally pitted at the end of lap 31, but despite being assured exiting the pit lane that his team mate would not be attacking him when he rejoined, Sainz appeared to have no interest in backing off to honour that request, driving alongside his team mate and through on the run to turn four.

While all the intrigue was happening behind him, Russell was having the most tranquil evening of anyone still awake in Las Vegas. Mercedes pitted the leader last of those at the front on lap 32, rejoining the track with just under 13 seconds of advantage to his team mate and five-lap younger hard tyres. But despite charging from 10th to second, Hamilton was not prepared to accept the runner-up spot and continued to push hard to close down those dozen seconds.

As Hamilton closed on his team mate, the Ferraris did the same to Verstappen. All Verstappen required from the race was to finish ahead of Norris, who he held a 14-second advantage over, so when the Ferraris came knocking on his door, the Red Bull driver did not make their lives difficult.

Sainz slipped by the Red Bull before Leclerc passed a handful of laps after his team mate. The outgoing Ferrari driver was now back up in the podium positions, with Norris in sixth far too off from Verstappen to have any hope of now keeping the championship battle alive.

It had been over two years since Russell had won a grand prix which he led the majority of – his maiden victory in Brazil in 2022. That day, he had led Hamilton home for a Mercedes one-two. After an excellent weekend for him and his team, Russell was about to do the same again.

Rising his hand out of his cockpit to signal to the fans in the grandstands that he was indeed number one on this special night, Russell rounded the final corner to complete lap 50 and secure his second win of the season. Hamilton was seven seconds back in second after never being more than 15 seconds off his team mate despite starting nine positions lower on the grid. It was the first Mercedes one-two since that day in Sao Paulo two years ago.

“I was planning on flying in a couple of hours, but I’m definitely not getting on that flight,” the winner joked. “I’m going to enjoy this evening with all my team.

“It’s been a dream of a weekend. I don’t know how we’ve been so quick, but I’m just riding this wave right now.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Knowing he had thrown away a possible chance to win again with his qualifying performance, Hamilton could only admit his team mate had deserved it.

“At the end of the day, George did a great job, did everything he was supposed to do and I’m happy for him and I’m just grateful I could get back up there to support the team with a one-two,” he said.

Sainz’s third place was no mean feat given how much stronger the Mercedes had been over the weekend. The Ferrari driver was still happy to be on the podium, given how badly the graining had affected them.

“I think today Mercedes was just the quicker car, the quicker package,” he admitted. “We just struggled too much with graining, more than what we were anticipating, and it meant that we couldn’t push on the tyres. We were having to save so much that we couldn’t use the pace of the car. We were just simply not fast enough.”

Leclerc was a frustrated fourth, unleashing a foul-mouthed rant over the radio on the cooldown lap at his team mate’s lack of “respect” towards him in the race. The 27 points gained by the pair of them helped them to cut McLaren’s lead in the constructors’ championship to just 24 points with two weekends remaining.

But while one championship battle grew closer, another was brought to its end when Verstappen crossed the line in fifth place. Just like Nelson Piquet and Keke Rosberg had done at Las Vegas’s Caesars Palace in 1981 and 1982, Verstappen had sealed the title by finishing in fifth position.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

“When you grow up racing and you see all these stats of some legendary drivers, you’re like, ‘that’s very impressive and I hope one day that I can even just be on the podium, win a race, maybe win a championship’,” said the new four-times champion. “It’s already hard enough to win one. Then you also need a bit of luck to be in the right team situation to maybe win more. But luckily we did that.”

Norris’s championship challenge died with his fifth place, but he managed to pit in the closing laps to secure the fastest lap and a bonus point to assist McLaren in their defence of their constructors’ championship lead ahead of his team mate Oscar Piastri. Nico Hulkenberg helped move Haas back up to sixth in the championship with his eighth place finish, while Yuki Tsunoda held off Sergio Perez over the final laps to take ninth.

Although he was the man of honour for F1’s most excessive podium celebrations of the season, Russell was once again not the focus of attention when he surely would have been at any other race of the year. But in the city where fortune makes fortunes, Russell was just happy luck was on his side.

“It’s not the first race we’ve been leading this year. I was just waiting for the Safety Car, red flag, rain… a bloody tree flying onto the track, I don’t know what! But it didn’t happen. I guess that fortune has turned.”