The Dutchman triumphs in the Nevada Grand Prix and reopens the World Championship with two grands prix (and a Sprint) to go. Leclerc sixth, Hamilton tenth: “I can’t wait for it to finish”
Max Verstappen triumphs as an absolute dominator in Las Vegas in the third to last world event of the season and effectively reopens the Constructors’ World Championship given that the Mc Larens of Norris and Piastri who had placed second and fourth) were disqualified. The International Federation, after having put Norris and Piastri’s cars under investigation, disqualified them for the non-conformity of the plank (a board mounted under the bottom of the car, along the central axis), for the same reason Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari was disqualified in China. With the disqualification of the two Mc Laren Verstappen he is 24 points away from the world championship leader with one race, two grand prix and one Sprint to go. An unthinkable situation in the middle of the season when Mc Laren’s dominance was absolute.
The race
Verstappen took advantage of Norris’ starting error finished wide at the first corner to defend himself from the Dutchman’s aggressive attack. After all, Max had only one chance to hope to still be in the running for the title, to win. And that’s exactly what he did. Norris had to settle for second place and Piastri fourth, before the Federation disqualified them. On the lowest step of the podium was Russell with Mercedes while Leclerc finished sixth with the usual problems of an undriveable Ferrari despite John Elkann’s statements who invited the drivers to talk less. On Saturday Leclerc called Ferrari embarrassing, Hamilton who finished in tenth place after the race let off steam once again: ” “It’s a terrible result. There is nothing positive to take from this day”: Lewis Hamilton is drastic on BBC Radio 5. “I can’t wait for it to end, I can’t wait for it to end. I can’t wait for next season.” Leclerc was also disappointed: “I left nothing, every lap I took risks like in qualifying. I have no regrets, but I don’t know how much we needed to do better. Maybe it could have been done better. It was a difficult race, I took incredible risks to overtake because we weren’t going on the straight.”
