Max Verstappen wins 2024 F1 World Championship as Red Bull driver closes Drivers’ Championship at Las Vegas GP | F1 news

Max Verstappen has become Formula One world champion for the fourth time after winning the title in 2024 at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Verstappen, 27, is the sixth driver in the history of the sport to win at least four world titles.

Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have each won a record seven, with 1950s Argentine legend Juan-Manuel Fangio on five ahead of Alain Prost, Sebastian Vettel and now Verstappen on four.

Having won every driver’s championship since claiming his first in the controversial end to the 2021 season, Verstappen now joins Hamilton, Fangio and Vettel in winning four titles in a row.

Only Schumacher has achieved a run of five.

Coming off the back of the most dominant season in history in 2023, winning a record 19 out of 22 races, Verstappen looked set to walk away with the championship again after taking seven of the first 10 wins of the year.

But an unexpected Red Bull slump in form, combined with McLaren proving the grid’s most consistent front-runner and Ferrari’s own step forward since the summer break, had seen Lando Norris mount a late-season challenge.

“It’s been a long season. Of course we started great, it was almost like cruising, but then we had a tough race,” Verstappen said.

“But as a team we kept it together, we kept working on improvements and we crossed the line.

“I’m incredibly proud of everyone, what they’ve done for me.

“And standing here as a four-time world champion is obviously something I never thought possible. So at the moment I just feel relieved, in a way, but also very proud.”

But while Red Bull lost the Constructors’ Championship lead and dropped to third amid sustained battles for Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s ability to keep scoring strong points finishes meant his advantage was reduced more gradually from a season- high lead of 84 points after July’s British Grand Prix.

Norris had reduced that to 44 points when he won the Sprint at the Sao Paulo GP earlier this month, but the title race swung decisively in Verstappen’s favor a day later when the Dutchman produced a sublime drive in the rain-hit Grand Prix to win from 17th. on the grid, while his McLaren rival faltered to sixth from pole.

Verstappen’s first full-race victory in five months re-established a commanding 62-point lead and meant he would win the title in Las Vegas by finishing ahead of Norris, which he achieved on Sunday morning by taking fifth in the race – one place ahead of his McLaren rival struggling for pace.

Although Verstappen moved up to second behind eventual race winner George Russell in the early stages of the race, he was relegated from the podium to fifth in the long second lap on hard tires after being overtaken by Lewis Hamilton and then Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc .

More to follow…