Formula One returns to the Strip this week for the fourth annual Las Vegas Grand Prix, with practice sessions scheduled for Thursday at 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. before the 50-lap race Saturday at 8 p.m. on the 17-turn, 3.853-mile circuit.
Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli arrives having already clinched the drivers' championship on Nov. 1 in Mexico, while his team secured the constructors' title after the Brazil race. The 20-year-old Italian has nine wins this season and is pursuing a 10th, a mark reached only 13 times in F1 history since 1950. Antonelli finished third in Las Vegas last year after both McLaren cars were disqualified in postrace inspection.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen, the reigning Las Vegas winner, is targeting his third victory at the event. After criticizing the inaugural race in 2023 — saying drivers looked like "clowns" amid the "show" — Verstappen sang "Viva Las Vegas" while taking the checkered flag. He enters this weekend second in the standings with 279 points, 111 behind Antonelli, and has finished on the podium in the past eight races.
The battle for second place in the championship is tight, with just 33 points separating Verstappen from sixth place. George Russell (262 points), Lewis Hamilton (261), Charles Leclerc (249), and Lando Norris (246) all sit in that cluster. All five have won at least once this season. Norris, who won the most recent race in Brazil on Nov. 8, finished second in Las Vegas last year before failing postrace inspection.
Russell won the 2024 Las Vegas race and was second in 2023. Hamilton was runner-up in 2024, while Leclerc finished second in the inaugural 2023 event.
Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal
Original reporting: Las Vegas Review-Journal →
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