Max Verstappen wins a fourth world title as George Russell wins the Las Vegas Grand Prix

He jumped up to the back of the main group by delaying his first stop and passed Norris shortly after that. The seven-time champion then set about challenging the Ferraris, with Verstappen by this point second ahead of Sainz and Leclerc, having overtaken the red cars with a later pit stop.

But Hamilton, lacking equal speed in his Mercedes, was unable to make progress past the red cars.

Mercedes instead made a second pit stop on lap 27, one lap ahead of Sainz and four laps ahead of Leclerc, and Hamilton used his pace to move into second.

He caught Verstappen with a series of fastest laps and swept past on the straight on lap 31.

Russell followed Leclerc into lap 32 and a few laps after his stop, Hamilton took chunks out of his team-mate’s lead, reducing it from 11.2 seconds to 7.4 over seven laps.

But it soon became clear that Russell had the race under control and he led Hamilton to an unexpected one-two.

Behind them, the Ferraris closed in on Verstappen again after their final pit stop and both passed him in the final 10 laps.

Behind Norris, his teammate Oscar Piastri was seventh, as Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, RB’s Yjuki Tsunoda and Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez completed the top 10.