Verstappen Wins LVGP, Keeps Hope of a Fifth Alive Mark Thompson - Getty ImagesVictoria BeaverSun, November 23, 2025 at 5:33 AM UTC·2 min readMax Verstappen took the lead from polesitter Lando Norris at the start of the Las Vegas Grand Prix when Norris overcommitted to a Verstappen-esque move Saturday evening. Verstappen would go on to win the race by 16.540 seconds for his second win in the Las Vegas Grand Prix. This is Verstappen's sixth win of the season as the four-time defending champion keeps the hopes alive of a fifth championship, outscoring both McLarens.
Norris dove deep and cut off Verstappen on the inside but couldn't hold position, ultimately falling to third behind the Mercedes of George Russell.
On the opening lap, Gabriele Bortoleto triggered a chain-reaction crash in the middle of the top ten, leading to Liam Lawson hitting championship contender Oscar Piastri wheel-to-wheel.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Las Vegas Grand Prix was set to be a chaotic mix-up for the championship contenders after short runs all weekend and a wet qualifying session going into a dry, green track for race day. Instead, the top three in the standings finished nearly exactly where they started, with Verstappen and Norris trading places on the opening lap, and Piastri finished the race where he qualified, in fifth, and was elevated to fourth thanks to Kimi Antonelli’s 5-second penalty for moving ahead of a restart.
Norris fell away from Verstappen in the closing laps but was able to hang on to second because George Russell, who completed the podium, was having an issue with his car as well.
Norris heads to the final two race weekends with a 30-point lead over his teammate Piastri and a 42-point lead over Verstappen, with all three still mathematically in the hunt for the 2025 championship.
Antonelli had the driver of his young career, running hard tires for 45 laps and defending against Piastri in the closing laps to keep his teammate Russell on the podium.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementRussell was having trouble with the steering and radioed the garage to let them know he didn't want to risk his ninth podium of the year by defending against Norris in the faster McLaren.
The Italian teenager was able to pull far enough away from Charles Leclerc, who was often in DRS range of Piastri, to only lose the one position, finishing fifth.
Leclerc finished sixth ahead of Carlos Sainz, who started third and fell to seventh.
Isack Hadjar, Nico Hulkenberg, and Lewis Hamilton completed the top ten in Vegas.
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