MAX VERSTAPPEN showed he is a Survivor as he won the Las Vegas Grand Prix in front of Beyonce and Jay Z.
The win, 20 SECONDS ahead of Lando Norris, kept him mathematically in the fight for the title while the Brit pushed ever closer to world title glory.
The Brit McLaren driver was boosted by another tepid performance from Oscar Piastri who came in fifth, which changed to fourth due to Kimi Antonelli’s five-second time penalty.
Meanwhile George Russell occupied the final podium spot and Lewis Hamilton made it into the points with an epic drive after starting dead last.
Beyonce had turned heads by visiting the paddock before the race in a plunging Louis Vuitton race suit with rapper husband Jay Z.
They posed for a picture with seven-time world champion Hamilton and rapper Tavis Scott.
A crazy start saw Norris drop behind Verstappen after initially batting him away but then running wide into Turn One.
George Russell then nipped through on the exit to take second from the world championship leader while Carlos Sainz was nudged down into fourth.
Norris’ teammate Piastri also struggled at the start and banged wheels with Liam Lawson, meaning he dropped down from fifth to seventh.
Ferrari’s Hamilton was flying though having soared into 12th after starting dead last on the grid.
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Verstappen was opening up an early lead but a Virtual Safety Car was called into action with Lawson struggling with the damage on his car after the earlier incident with Piastri.
By lap four, the VSC phase ended and Max Verstappen put the hammer down from the lead.
Gabriel Bortoleto and Lance Stroll had already bitten the dust after colliding and both retired while Lawson was still struggling in 18th and Pierre Gasly had damage and in 17th.
Leclerc roared that he was “pushing like an animal” on his team radio and he passed Piastri down the main straight.
Hamilton was enjoying some argy bargy in the middle of the pack as he was overtaken by Albon but then nipped back ahead.
Replays showed the two had actually collided and Albon had damage on his Williams and went into the pits prompting a VSC.
The Thai driver was later slapped with a five-second penalty for causing the incident.
Norris was told to play the long game by his race engineer Will Joseph, who said on the team radio: “The way to beat Russell is at the end” in a nod to the McLaren diver’s fresher tyres.
Verstappen was told that Norris was hunting him down and he hit back with a blistering lap with 13 laps to go.
The Dutchman was flying and set a new fastest lap on this latest one to stretch a comfortable lead of 5.5 seconds over the British McLaren driver.
Norris suffered a late scare as he dropped 17 seconds behind Verstappen all of a sudden as he had a fuel saving issue.
Verstappen hit the jackpot and soared over the line as Catherine Zeta Jones waved the flag.
He then jumped into a lego bright-pink Cadillac with Norris and Russell, as Terri Crews drove them to the Bellagio Fountains for their podium celebrations – yes you read that sentence correctly.
