Max Verstappen eased to victory under the lights of Las Vegas to close to within twelve points of Oscar Piastri in the championship. Lando Norris recovered to second after a poor start, extending his lead in the championship with just two rounds to go. Another strong performance for George Russell saw the Mercedes driver round out the top three.
Low grip causes chaos
With track temperatures the lowest they have been all season, turn 1 quickly became an ice rink.
The lights blinked out and Norris aggressively covered Verstappen but ran wide into turn 1. The Dutchman shot up the inside, nearly getting collected by the McLaren re-joining who was now under pressure from Russell behind.
Having won the race last year, Russell pilled the pressure on the McLaren who was clearly struggling with his cold tyres. The Mercedes driver soared round the outside into turn 4 to promote himself into second.
It was a dismal start for the McLaren pair as Piastri dropped to sixth. Already under pressure in the championship, the Australian driver was hit by Lawson into turn 1, causing the McLaren to fall behind the VCARB.
Further back, Bortoleto cannoned into Stroll, the pair eliminated due to the damage suffered. Gasly spun having been tapped from behind and Albon also rear-ended the Haas of Ocon.
Starting on the soft tyres, Antonelli pitted on lap 2 to move onto the hard compound, Mercedes eyeing a one stop strategy. Their optimism was scuppered though as the young Italian was slammed with a five-second penalty for a jump start.
Marshall madness again
After the incident in Mexico involving Lawson, the FIA thrust themselves into the limelight again with a near catastrophic error.
A virtual safety car was thrown on lap 4 to recover debris from the numerous collisions. Arguably though, this came three laps too late.
Under double yellows, eight marshals headed onto track at turn 1 to clear bodywork left in the turn 1 runoff.
At full race speed, Verstappen led the pack into turn 1 with all eight marshals still recovering debris.
Double waved yellows were waved furiously by observing marshals as they watched their colleagues sprint off the track as drivers approached, still on cold tyres and fighting for track position.
Second VSC prompts pit stop rounds
As the race settled down, Hamilton found himself challenging Albon and Bearman down in twelth following a strong start.
The Ferrari driver gained six places at the start and was pushing to close in on the top ten.
A lock up invited Albon to challenge but the Williams driver misjudged the move. Shards of front wing flew into the sky as the Thai driver clipped Hamilton heading into turn 15.
Having waited two laps, the FIA dispatched the VSC to recover the debris.
Russell was the first to react, two laps after the VSC was withdrawn, switching to the hard compound and falling to seventh.
Piastri followed four laps later on lap 22 followed by his teammate a lap later. A 2.3 second stop saw the championship leader return fractionally behind Russell infront.
Joining Norris in the pitlane was Sainz who momentarily jumped Piastri exiting the pitlane. But, on cold tyres, the Spanish driver fell down to tenth as Piastri eased past.
Norris making moves as teammate stumbles
With Russell complaining of a steering issue, Norris made his move. Heading into turn 14, the McLaren driver soared around the outside of the struggling Mercedes to move into second.
With 16 laps remaining of the 50, Verstappen sat 4.8 seconds ahead, a comfortable advantage over his title rival.
Behind the top three, Antonelli remained resolute in his defending despite the five-second penalty looming.
Piastri behind seemed frustrated, looking to pass into turn 15 but finding no room and sliding on exit, dropping him into the clutches of Leclerc.
The penalty though meant fourth fell Piastri’s way and at the chequered flag the Mercedes driver dropped behind Piastri.
48 laps on the hard tyre didn’t phase the young man though who pulled clear of Leclerc to finish fifth overall.
Dominant and never in doubt
Verstappen’s grip on the race win never looked in doubt throughout the race as the Dutchman crossed the line with the biggest winning margin seen on the streets of Nevada.
Despite the McLaren driver coming to within five seconds, the Dutchman comfortably extended the gap to over 15 seconds at the chequered flag.
With a lap to go heart rates increased at McLaren with the British driver told he had a fuel saving issue with two laps to go.
The six second gap between him and Russell dropped to four and a half seconds but the Brit held on to extend his championship lead over his teammate.
Three seconds separated Norris and Russell at the line, as the British pair rounded out the top three.
Piastri came home fourth, his championship challenge fizzling out with Verstappen breathing down his neck.
Antonelli completed the top five with Leclerc just a few tenths behind. Sainz finished seventh ahead of Hadjar and Hulkenberg, the German brining home valuable points for Sauber.
Having started at the rear of the field, Hamilton rounded out an impressive comeback race to round out the top ten.
Feature image courtesy of Formula 1