Max Verstappen can end a late evening in Las Vegas with his fourth consecutive Formula 1 world championship.
Verstappen goes into the Las Vegas Grand Prix (1:00 a.m. ET Sunday, ESPN) with a 62-point lead over Lando Norris thanks to a victory in the São Paulo Grand Prix. Norris started that race on pole, but quickly lost the lead as Verstappen powered through the field for a convincing win over Alpine teammates Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.
The three-time champion added 15 points to his lead over Norris after Norris finished sixth in the Grand Prix the day after winning the sprint. Norris had gained three points over Verstappen in the sprint race, but lost 18 points in the Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s dominant Grand Prix performance in Brazil means he simply has to keep Norris in his rear-view mirror in Las Vegas to clinch the title. With two Grand Prix races and one sprint race to go after this weekend’s race, there is only a maximum of 60 points available.
This means that Verstappen can win the title in various ways in Vegas. If he finishes ahead of Norris and both drivers score points, he is the champion. If neither driver scores points, Verstappen is champion. And even if Norris finishes in fourth place without scoring the fastest lap of the race, Verstappen is still champion if he finishes one place behind him.
Yes, this title race is over. Although it has certainly been better than the previous two championship fights.
Verstappen took the 2022 title with four races to go. He took victory a season ago with five races remaining, while winning 19 of the 2022 races. That remarkable achievement included 17 wins in the final 18 races of the season, as Carlos Sainz’s victory in Singapore was the only victory for a non-Red Bull driver all season.
There is more equality this season. Seven drivers spread over four teams have won races this season and Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez is not part of that group. Before his victory in Brazil, Verstappen had not won since the Spanish Grand Prix on June 23.
That summer swoon allowed Norris to get into the title mix. Norris took two wins during Verstappen’s run of ten races without a win, although a serious argument can be made that he should have taken more wins as Verstappen kept missing out on victory lane. Poor starts have plagued Norris all season and McLaren switched him to Oscar Piastri in Hungary in July.
Verstappen, meanwhile, continued to score decent finishes in a car that is nowhere near as dominant as the past two seasons. In those ten races without a win, Verstappen never finished lower than sixth, because Perez was out in the field. During that same stretch, Perez’s best finish was sixth and he finished outside the points three times.
If Verstappen had struggled like Perez, Norris might have had a real shot at his first title. Instead, Verstappen’s ability to get solid results from a car that has been overtaken at various points by both Ferrari and McLaren is the reason he is about to become the fifth driver in F1 history with at least four consecutive titles.
