Max Verstappen wins Formula 1 race in Las Vegas, but runner-up Lando Norris extends his championship lead
LAS VEGAS — Max Verstappen won the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday night, taking the lead from championship leader Lando Norris at the start and never looking back.
F1 cars raced down the Las Vegas Strip at breathtaking speeds of more than 215 miles per hour, delivering thrilling wheel-to-wheel racing under the bright lights for the third year.
Yet despite his second place finish, it was a good result for Norris in the battle for the 2025 world championship as he increased his lead over his closest rival Oscar Piastri, who also drives for McLaren and finished fourth.
Norris now has 408 points, while Piastri has 378. Verstappen, who races for Red Bull, sits third in the standings with 366.
“I’m just pretty disappointed with today,” Norris said, while acknowledging the positive side. “Even though I feel like I had a bad day, today was still a relatively good day.”
There are only two Grands Prix left in a 2025 season full of twists and turns: next weekend in Qatar and the weekend after in Abu Dhabi. The Qatar race also includes a shortened ‘sprint’ race, so there are a maximum of 58 points up for grabs.
“It’s still a big gap,” Verstappen said of the title fight in a post-race interview. “In the coming weekends we will try to win the race again, and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up.”
Norris started first but lost two positions in the opening corners after making an aggressive move to defend his lead, but ran wide into the first corner and was passed by Verstappen and George Russell. He eventually overtook Mercedes’ Russell but couldn’t get closer to Verstappen, and he was forced to slow his pace towards the end due to a problem with the car. Russell finished third.
“I blew it and made my life harder at the first corner,” Norris said. “But even after that we just weren’t fast enough… I was pushing hard and Max was still pulling away.”
Piastri said he was not out of the title race yet.
“I’m obviously in a position where I can’t just win by winning races. But what I can do is put myself in the best position to capitalize if something happens,” he told reporters. “So for my own pride and my ego and my opportunities, I want to win the next two races…And if things go my way, things go my way, and if they don’t, then that’s the way it is.”
An economic boost for Las Vegas
Local leaders hope the race weekend will provide a much-needed boost to the Las Vegas economy, which has struggled this year due to, among other things, high costs and declining tourism. Last year, the Las Vegas Grand Prix generated an economic impact of $934 million, according to one estimate.
“It’s a very important event. And I fully support all of our special events. We’re not just the entertainment capital, we’re the entertainment and sports capital,” U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., who represents parts of the city, told NBC News before the race. “So it’s great to have a marquee event like this on the Las Vegas Strip, and it does a lot for our economy.”
F1 is looking to continue its momentum with American fans, having secured the Miami and Las Vegas races – in addition to the long-running Austin Grand Prix – on the long-term calendar. He signed a five-year deal with Apple, which will take over ESPN’s U.S. broadcast rights starting next year.
Celebrities include musicians Beyoncé and Jay-Z, actors Ben Affleck, Michael Douglas and Naomi Campbell, NBA stars Magic Johnson and Jimmy Butler, and tennis player Taylor Fritz. Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones waved the checkered flag.
The top three finishers were driven to the podium, located on the Strip at the Bellagio Fountain Club, in a pink LEGO-built Cadillac car driven by Terry Crews.
Before the race, Ferrari superstar Lewis Hamilton took Beyoncé on a hot lap of the circuit, a team spokesperson confirmed. as she was decked out in a custom Louis Vuitton racing suit. The two stars were spotted watching the race from the Ferrari garage.
Also in attendance on Saturday were Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel, who were given a tour of the paddock by F1 officials.
“I’ve always been a fan of NASCAR and I’ve learned a lot about F1 over the last few years. And we’re excited to see everyone racing,” Noem said, adding that she was going to visit the McLaren garage. Patel called Formula 1 “one of the greatest sports”, saying he was a McLaren fan.
Rain wreaks havoc in qualifying
Friday’s qualifying session was thrown into chaos by the rain, which squeezed every ounce of skill from the 20 drivers just to stay out of the barriers. The track, already known for its low grip even in dry conditions, proved slippery and dangerous for most of the session.
“You just try to stay on the track. No crashes. Don’t eliminate yourself,” Norris said after taking pole position. “One day I just hope – besides having a two-seater F1 car – that people can feel how nerve-wracking and scary it can be sometimes. How unpredictable it is.”
And the Las Vegas paddock was abuzz with internal drama between several teams over the weekend.
Piastri was asked about a recent Instagram post quoting F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone as saying McLaren “prefers” Norris because of his “high star quality” and “marketing appeal”.
Asked about the replay, which was promoted online by F1 content creators, Piastri told reporters it was an error.
“I don’t know,” he said Friday after deleting it from his feed. “I woke up this morning and I saw it. So I don’t know, maybe I did it accidentally. Obviously it wasn’t intentional. But yeah, I didn’t know what happened.”
Instagram offers one-click reposts – unlike X, which requires users to click twice to confirm – making it easier to accidentally repost something while scrolling. Yet this adds to drama in which fans of the Australian driver have speculated that the British team favors his British teammate, a claim McLaren strongly denies.
Both Ferrari drivers downplayed recent comments from Ferrari president John Elkann who said they should “talk less and concentrate on driving” – remarks criticized by critics as gratuitous criticism of Leclerc and Hamilton after Ferrari’s decision to build a new car for 2025 (rather than upgrade last year’s version) backfired and led to a winless season so far.
“I’m always willing to do less media,” Hamilton joked.
The seven-time world champion told reporters it was “not really” possible to concentrate more on riding than he already is. “I wake up thinking about it. And I go to sleep thinking about it. And I think about it while I sleep,” Hamilton said.
Leclerc said the comment was a product of Elkann’s ambition to maximize the team’s potential. “He loves Ferrari. I love Ferrari. We all love Ferrari,” Leclerc said. “When he called me, he told me what the intentions of those words were, and it was very clear. It was a positive message, I was trying to be positive.”
Ferrari currently sits fourth in a tight battle for second place in the teams’ championship, behind Mercedes and Red Bull. While the drivers’ title is more glorious, the constructors’ championship is the one that awards cash prizes. Ferrari finished second to McLaren last year in a close battle.
Hamilton started 20th, but had a good first lap and worked his way from last to 10th.
Although Hamilton said he is not getting any positive results from his comeback, he enjoys racing in Las Vegas.
“I love coming to Vegas,” he told reporters after the race. “I think it’s a really great town. The reception is always great here. I think it’s the biggest crowd we’ve seen, even though it’s pretty cold.”
And weekend activities have evolved over the three years as F1 seeks a better balance between sport and spectacle.
“I think it’s definitely better than a few years ago. I think it was a little too much for everyone,” Norris said. “Might as well be in Cirque du Soleil with what we were doing at the time.”
