Max Verstappen became a four-time world champion thanks to a confident drive to fifth place during the Las Vegas Grand Prix, while George Russell and Lewis Hamilton took the top two spots for Mercedes. They were followed by the Ferrari pairing of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. The 27-year-old Dutchman has an unassailable 63-point lead ahead of the final two races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. With his fourth title, he has equalled Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost in the historic standings. Only Argentina's Juan Manuel Fangio (5) and Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher (7) have more.
Verstappen went into the 50-lap race knowing that all he needed to do to take the next crown was to keep title rival Lando Norris behind him, which the Dutchman did, holding his position at the first corner and gradually pulling away from the McLaren driver.
Verstappen, who held podium position after the second round of pit stops, decided not to fight when a Ferrari came up on the back of his Red Bull in the closing laps - both Sainz and Leclerc found their way past before the chequered flag.
Up front, Russell expertly handled a tricky race in cold and slippery conditions, keeping the fast-starting Leclerc at bay in the early laps - he ran into tyre problems as a result of this aggression - and then controlling the race.
Hamilton recovered from a difficult end to qualifying, which left him 10th on the grid, to fight his way through the field and support teammate Russell, whose victory marked Mercedes' first triumph since the Belgian Grand Prix in July.
Norris made a successful bid for the fastest lap in the closing moments, finishing sixth and mathematically out of contention for the title, while his teammate Oscar Piastri crossed the line seventh after a time penalty for a false start.
Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg was ahead of RB's Yuki Tsunoda at the end of the race, which could be key to the constructors' close battle for sixth place, especially after Pierre Gasly, starting from the second row, retired with technical problems aboard his Alpine.
Sergio Perez added a point for Red Bull in tenth, denying Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, and Haas' Kevin Magnussen finished twelfth, one stop ahead of Kick Sauber's Zhou Guanyu and the Williams of Franco Colapinto, who started on pit lane after a horrific crash in qualifying.
Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Liam Lawson (RB), Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Valtteri Bottas (Kick Sauber) all finished after Alex Albon became the second Williams driver to retire due to his own technical difficulties.
"It's been a long season and obviously we started amazing, almost like we were sailing, but then we had a tough ride - but as a team we stuck together, worked on improvements and managed to win. I'm incredibly proud of everyone for what they've done for me, and to stand here as a four-time world champion is obviously something I never thought possible," Verstappen said.
How it happened
At the end of a riveting qualifying session under the lights of Las Vegas, Russell made great use of Mercedes' strong practice pace to secure pole position and break McLaren and Ferrari's streak of first-place starts that stretched back to July's British Grand Prix.
Sainz became his closest rival, ahead of Gasly and Leclerc, with title contenders Verstappen and Norris sharing the third row of the grid - the Red Bull man knew that finishing ahead of him would secure his fourth consecutive world title.
There were a few changes to the grid before the start, as Bottas dropped behind Stroll for a new power unit and Colapinto headed from P14 to pit lane due to extensive repairs necessitated by his big qualifying shunt.
When the tyre blankets were removed from the cars, it became apparent that most drivers would start on medium-hard Pirelli tyres, with Perez, Bottas and Colapinto opting for hard tyres and Alonso running aggressively on soft tyres.
A few moments later it was time for the main race - the Las Vegas 50-lap Grand Prix. When the lights went out, Russell, who had pole position, made a clean getaway and held the lead at Turn 1, while Leclerc made his way from P4 to P2, passing Gasly and Sainz at Turns 1 and 2.
Just behind them, Verstappen and Norris raised the Red Bull and McLaren's pulse by going lap for lap in the first sector and staying on P5 and P6 ahead of Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Piastri and Hamilton, while Lawson and Magnussen waged a tight midfield battle.
On lap 4, Leclerc got up behind Russell and came close to making a move on Turn 14, where Verstappen slipped past Gasly at P4, and the Mercedes man was then forced to go on the defensive through Turn 1 at the start of lap 5 to keep the Ferrari behind him.
Alonso gained a few places in the opening laps, but his gamble seemingly backfired when he pitted early and got rid of the soft rubber, but Piastri had a bigger problem when the stewards handed him a five-second penalty for an incorrect starting position.
After such a strong start to the race, Leclerc's pace dropped dramatically and Sainz and Verstappen got ahead of him in quick succession. Meanwhile, Hamilton had caught Piastri in eighth and Norris found his way past Gasly into P5.
After just 10 laps, Leclerc pitted with Norris to swap the troublesome medium tyres for a set of hard tyres. One lap later, Sainz, Gasly, Tsunoda and Piastri did the same, leaving Russell and Verstappen alone at the front and a flying Hamilton in third.
On lap 12 Verstappen switched to hard tyres and returned to action in a bevy of cars in the middle of the field, but decisively ahead of both Ferraris and title rival Norris, whereupon on lap 13, the leader Russell visited pit lane - freeing up Hamilton, Perez and Hulkenberg who had yet to stop.
A few laps later, as the rest of the drivers at the front of the race pitted, Russell returned to the top spot ahead of Verstappen, Sainz, Leclerc and Norris. Hamilton was now behind this group and allowed his strategy to be challenged, but was told that by staying longer he would drop another five places.
Then disaster struck for Gasly, who screamed "no power", while smoke was coming out of the back of his car. After this stunning start on P3, the Frenchman was forced to return to pit lane and park outside the Alpine garage, dealing a blow to the engineers' efforts.
Hamilton, with fresh tyres and a slight shift, flashed up the timesheets, soon closing in on Norris and easily taking the lead, with his future Ferrari teammate Leclerc a few seconds further down the order, his early stop limiting the damage caused by his drop in pace.
As the halfway point of the race approached, Russell was about 10 seconds ahead of Verstappen, followed by Ferrari and Hamilton, who noted that "these guys are fast on the straights". Norris remained sixth, with Tsunoda, Piastri, Hulkenberg and a recovering Albon holding the last points.
Ocon and Alonso soon confirmed what everyone had expected from the early stages of the race when they pitted for the second time - the latter's hard tyres lasting just 20 laps. However, Alonso's next stop was the final one, Williams calling him in to shut the car down with a technical issue.
Verstappen and Hamilton were the first of the front-runners to pit for more hard tyres on lap 28, while Sainz also seemed determined to stop, only to be told at the last minute to stay off the track and get back on track. "Wake up, boys!" Sainz shouted before heading to the pits for the next circuit.
Norris, Leclerc and Russell came to a halt over the next few laps as former winners Hamilton and Verstappen converged on the track - the seven-time world champion closing in on the man seeking a fourth title with a DRS-assisted overtake on the back straight.
"Max, don't lose sight of our goal today." commented Verstappen's engineer Gianpiero Lambiase in an apparently delayed radio message. "Yeah, I'm running my own race." replied the Dutchman, who was barely struggling.
Further back the stewards noted an unseen incident between Lawson and Ocon in turn three, with the latter radioing his frustration at some contact, but no further investigation or penalties from the stewards' committee took place.
After those tyre changes, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff's pre-qualifying prediction came true as Russell and Hamilton were now running in a pair ahead of Verstappen, Ferrari (Leclerc came back from a later stop ahead of Sainz but was then passed) and Norris.
Hamilton's onslaught continued in the following laps, repeatedly taking several tenths of a second off teammate Russell, who improved his pace in response, while Verstappen fell into Ferrari's clutches and asked Red Bull if they wanted him to defend.
In the other Red Bull, Perez caused a stir with a double overtake of Magnussen and Lawson at Turn 14, with all three somehow avoiding a collision, whereupon the Mexican cleared Ocon and knocked on the points door - P10 now held by Alonso.
Verstappen's radio message was followed by a fairly cautious approach as Sainz and Leclerc got ever closer, with the former soon finding his way past and the latter finally getting past the Red Bull on lap 47 after a few laps behind.
Against the backdrop of Hamilton's electric pace, which saw the gap between the pair settle to around five seconds, Russell was given further instructions by his engineer to hurry and the younger Briton eventually got the job done, adding to the victory he took in Austria earlier this season.
Sainz, Leclerc and Verstappen also held P3, P4 and P5 positions, with Norris taking the opportunity to pit on the soft tyres and earn a bonus point for fastest lap - he had enough of a lead over teammate Piastri to do so.
Hulkenberg beat Tsunoda into eighth place with a late overtake to help Haas move up to P6 in the constructors' standings, while Perez salvaged one point from another difficult weekend after the aforementioned two-car overtake and a crucial intervention from Alonso.
Magnussen couldn't quite connect with teammate Hulkenberg, who was the only driver to pit once and finished P12 ahead of Zhou and Colapinto, who at least managed to get Williams to the finish after the qualifying accident and Albon's retirement.
Stroll was fifteenth at the flag, ahead of the bickering Lawson and Ocon (who also pitted for softs later), and Bottas crossed the line last, with Albon and Gasly watching the action from the side after their technical misfortune.
Then came a spectacular round of celebrations as midnight approached on the Las Vegas Strip - Russell, Hamilton and Sainz enjoying the podium ceremony and Verstappen beginning to realise what he had achieved as a four-time champion.
Results:
| Pos | From | Driver | Car | Laps | Time/retired | Pts |
| 1 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 50 | 1:22:05.969 | 25 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 50 | +7.313s | 18 |
| 3 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 50 | +11.906s | 15 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 50 | +14.283s | 12 |
| 5 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 50 | +16.582s | 10 |
| 6 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 50 | +43.385s | 9 |
| 7 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | 50 | +51.365s | 6 |
| 8 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas Ferrari | 50 | +59.808s | 4 |
| 9 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB Honda RBPT | 50 | +62.808s | 2 |
| 10 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 50 | +63.114s | 1 |
| 11 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 50 | +69.195s | 0 |
| 12 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 50 | +69.803s | 0 |
| 13 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 50 | +74.085s | 0 |
| 14 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | Williams Mercedes | 50 | +75.172s | 0 |
| 15 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 50 | +84.102s | 0 |
| 16 | 30 | Liam Lawson | RB Honda RBPT | 50 | +91.005s | 0 |
| 17 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | 49 | +1 leaf | 0 |
| 18 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 49 | +1 leaf | 0 |
| NC | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | 25 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | 15 | DNF | 0 |
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