F1 Takeaways: Verstappen reaches another level with fourth straight world championship

Red Bull's Max Verstappen hit the jackpot at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

As George Russell and Lewis Hamilton made it a 1-2 Mercedes finish late Saturday night, Verstappen only needed to finish in front of McLaren's Lando Norris to secure a fantastic fourth consecutive world championship.

Verstappen did just that as he crossed the line fifth — one spot ahead of Norris.

The 27-year-old Dutch driver now joins Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton — a Mount Rushmore's worth of the sport's greats — as those who have won four straight titles. Schumacher actually pulled off a five-peat and Verstappen can pursue a "drive for five" next season to equal the all-time record.

A fourth title for Verstappen seemed inevitable at the start of the season as he won seven of the first 10 races. Who could have possibly foreseen Verstappen would then hit a dry spell and go winless through the next 10 grands prix? Halloween came early as Verstappen suddenly struggled with a "monster" of a car with new upgrades failing to get the job done. Red Bull also lost design wizard Adrian Newey, who is set to join Aston Martin next season. As that was happening, Norris emerged as a new hope and a much-needed title contender after Verstappen's dominance over the past couple of seasons.

Verstappen never finished lower than sixth in a grand prix and won a pair of sprint races through his "slump" — something that would be considered a good streak for anyone else, teammate Sergio Perez included. The drought ended three weeks ago with Verstappen's masterclass drive from P17 to P1 in a rainy, wet and wild Sao Paulo GP.

“It's been a long season,” Verstappen said in a team release. “Of course, we started off amazing. It was almost like cruising, but then we had a tough run. But as a team, we kept it together. We kept working on improvements and yeah, we pulled over the line.

"I’m incredibly proud of everyone, what they have done for me and to stand here as a four-time world champion is, of course, something that I never thought was possible. So yeah, at the moment, just feeling relieved in a way, but also very proud."

Norris gave it a valiant effort but ran out of time to put enough of a dent in the championship gap. The British driver needed to earn three points more than Verstappen to keep his slim championship hopes alive heading into the penultimate weekend of the season in Qatar.

Despite Red Bull bringing a rear wing better suited for high downforce tracks like Monza — Vegas is a low downforce street circuit with full-throttle, Silverstone-esque straights — Verstappen qualified fifth ahead of Norris in sixth. (And how exactly did that happen when giving you wings is what Red Bull claims to be good at.)

They finished as they started. Although Verstappen flirted with a podium position in third, his fight wasn't with the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. He didn't make it easy but it was better to concede those two places than cook his tires and risk having Norris catch up.

But Norris struggled to find race pace and the flexible rear wing from Baku that McLaren would have loved to use has since been banned by the FIA and it's back to the drawing board.

"It’s just not been our weekend, we struggled a lot," Norris said in a team release. Clearly, we have a lot of things we need to improve on the car for the future."

Verstappen can chase greatness — and G.O.A.T. status — next season, but if McLaren gets out of the gate stronger, he will be in for a tougher battle.

MAGNIFICENT MOMENT FOR MERCEDES

Russell cruised to victory from pole position almost uncontested as he finished seven seconds ahead of his teammate. Even Hamilton was sailing in the clear four seconds in front of Sainz.

Mercedes was simply dialled in all weekend at the top of speed charts in practice and qualifying. Hamilton had set the fastest time during the second qualifying round but failed to get in a clean lap during the third and final stint and started 10th on the grid.

What a turnaround for Hamilton as he said earlier this week he "didn’t really want to come back" after finishing 10th in Brazil in a car he called “undriveable." Thankfully, walking away isn't how he closes the chapter on his illustrious Mercedes tenure as he heads to Ferrari next season.

Russell, who was victorious in Austria in June, became the seventh driver to earn multiple race wins this season. It looked like he had already accomplished that in Belgium, but Russell was disqualified after his car was deemed underweight and Hamilton inherited the win. The 1-2 finish Mercedes was denied came back.

"It has been a while since we took a 1-2 so this is a fantastic result for the team," Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said in a team release. "The colder conditions on a low grip circuit such as this clearly suited us. Nevertheless, everyone did a great job to execute well across the weekend. We have been quick from the start of FP1 on Thursday and continued that into Friday and Saturday. We got the car in a great window and that is really pleasing."

VEGAS VENDETTA FOR SAINZ

It was redemption for Sainz after what happened during last year's Las Vegas GP. Sainz ran over a loose manhole cover during practice causing significant damage to the floor of his car and requiring a new power unit. That exceeded his quota for the season and resulted in a 10-place grid penalty. Sainz was forced to start 12th and although he managed to finish sixth, it was still a missed opportunity for a podium position.

Sainz qualified second once more — and started on the front row this time — but third was probably the best he could hope for as Mercedes was nearly untouchable.

The Spanish driver escaped without what should have been a penalty. Just when it looked like Sainz was heading to the pits, he darted back onto the track and appeared to cross the white line. Even though Sainz had been complaining to his team on the radio that he needed new tires and it was time to pit, they still weren't ready for him and called an audible. Sainz was upset, but he should have gone full Kimi Raikkonen.

Hopefully, Hamilton was taking notes as these are things he will have to deal with when he replaces Sainz next year.

Meanwhile, it looks like it'll be community service for Leclerc.

CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP DOWN TO THE WIRE

The drivers' title may have been clinched, but there's still the constructors' championship to be decided. Even with a down weekend, McLaren (608 points) stays on top with a 24-point lead over longtime rival Ferrari.

Red Bull remains in third place, 29 points back of Ferrari, thanks to Verstappen's maverick efforts. Perez exited Q1 for the sixth time this season and only got promoted to 15th on the grid, as Franco Colapinto crashed during the final qualifying run and had to start from the pit lane following repairs to his car.

Perez improved to finish 10th and score one point but was outperformed by Yuki Tsunoda, who came in ninth in the sibling RB car. That will only cause the whispers to grow louder for Tsunoda (or anyone really) to replace Perez on the main team.

ALPINE'S EFFORTS GO TO WASTE

After a rare double podium in Brazil, it was a return to "Le Pain" for Alpine.

Pierre Gasly had an outstanding qualifying run putting his car third on the grid ahead of the Red Bulls (all of them) and both McLarens. It was a shame though as Gasly's race ended after only 15 laps when a plume of smoke emerged from the back of his car.

Teammate Esteban Ocon was well out of the points in 17th place, thanks to a self-inflicted error in the pits. Ocon drove right past his box (it looked like his team wasn't even ready for him) and had to return to the track before making a second run to the pits. Yes, "five-second time penalty to Ocon" has become a meme, but this one was self-inflicted as he essentially handed himself a drive-through penalty.

After Ocon and Gasly finished an unexpected second and third, respectively, in Sao Paulo, Alpine ascended from ninth to sixth in the constructors' championship and was looking at an additional $50 million in prize money. Alpine has now dropped to seventh as Nico Hulkenberg came in eighth place to push Haas ahead by one point.

EYE IN THE SKY

We said it last year and we’ll say it again, how can you not love the Sphere keeping watch over the action? 

Incredible scenes. 

DID YOU KNOW

This was actually the third time the drivers’ championship was decided in Las Vegas.

Nelson Piquet finished fifth in the 1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix to clinch his first world title. Oddly enough, Keke Rosberg came in fifth in the race the following year to earn his lone championship.

Verstappen already had the title locked up when F1 returned to Vegas last year but what place did his finish Saturday? Fifth.

What a coincidence, although three sevens would have been more fitting given that it's Vegas after all.