Max Verstappen wins his fourth F1 world title

He only had to complete the 50 laps of the Las Vegas Grand Prix (United States) ahead of Lando Norris, to secure his fourth consecutive world crown this Sunday. Challenge contested by Max Verstappen (Red Bull), fifth in a race held at night on a circuit in the heart of the largest city in Nevada, and won by George Russell (Mercedes). “My God, what a season!” Four titles, we gave everything, I gave everything. THANK YOU ! »The Dutch driver reacted in the first radio exchange broadcast by his team at the end of the race.

Lewis Hamilton took second place behind his teammate and fellow Briton, while the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) completed the podium, just ahead of his teammate, the Monegasque Charles Leclerc. The British Lando Norris, the big winner of the day and unable to influence the outcome of a race in which, however, he set the best time, finished sixth, with Max Verstappen’s escapes.

For the latter the season will have been complicated. If at the beginning of the championship he obtained a series of victories (seven of the first ten Grands Prix), in the second part he was shaken: no victory in ten races, between the end of June and the beginning of November. Never since 2020 have I missed so many consecutive victories.

He regained his sensations behind the wheel during the last Grands Prix, including the one in Brazil, which he won on November 3, and was 62 points ahead of his runner-up, Lando Norris, before the Las Vegas event, with a maximum of 86. There were units left. to be distributed before the day’s race.

He increased his advantage once the checkered flag waved on the Strip, the legendary Las Vegas boulevard, which allowed him to equal, at 27 years old, the Frenchman Alain Prost and the German Sebastian Vettel in the history of Formula 1.

Back to reality for Alpine

This season, struggling, the Alpine team experienced a much less encouraging result than during the previous race weekend, which concluded with an unexpected double podium behind Max Verstappen, in Brazil.

Gone in 3^my position on the grid, the Frenchman Pierre Gasly was forced to retire very early. Bad news for the French team, in its race for sixth place in the constructors’ championship. “We lost the engine suddenly. We had a problem that prevented me from having power and shifting normally. It’s a shame, after yesterday’s (Saturday) good classification, we were looking for 7^my or 8^my place “He reacted to the Canal+ microphone.

His teammate Esteban Ocon, seventeenth at the finish line, suffered poor communication on his first lap to the pits, which forced him to stop twice at the start of the race. A setback that soon ruined their chances of a potential rise in the rankings.

Their direct competitors, Haas and Racing Bulls, pocketed valuable points by each placing one driver in the top 10, ahead of the final two rounds of the F1 season, in Qatar (December 1) and then in Abu Dhabi ( December 8). Two tests in which the battle for the constructors’ title will be fought between the McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull teams.