It wasn't a surprise, but it was a surprising double success and the crowning of a world champion at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
George Russell got off to a perfect start, unlike Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly, who were overtaken by Charles Leclerc in two corners. Max Verstappen also had a good start but ran into traffic, so he could only advance to fourth place. We quickly reached the first stop; Fernando Alonso's start on soft tires didn't really work out, so he had to change on the fourth lap. Meanwhile, Sainz regained second place from Leclerc and would have tried to catch Russell. However, by then, the Briton had already built up a lead that would clearly last until the end of the race. Leclerc was struggling, and Verstappen had already easily overtaken him, who, of course, was not only competing for a better position but also for his crowning as world champion. Gasly, on the other hand, no longer had anything to fight for; his Alpine had run out of power...
By then, the entire grid had made its pit stops, the fronts had stabilized, and it was also clear that there would be two changes to the actual strategy. Tire management was only relevant in the case of the Mercedes team; everyone else was constantly struggling with grip and getting the tires into their operating range. Ultimately, Mercedes won the Las Vegas Grand Prix resoundingly, in the order of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, beating the Scuderia Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
But perhaps even more importantly, Max Verstappen, writing sporting history, became world champion for the fourth time at the wheel of Red Bull Racing.
