Max Verstappen can clinch his fourth consecutive Formula One World Championship this weekend with a win over Lando Norris in Las Vegas.
McLaren’s Norris should outscore Verstappen by three factors – requiring a minimum of a top-eight end even when Verstappen scores nothing – to increase the title race to Qatar.
Verstappen holds a 62-point lead with solely 60 factors remaining after Las Vegas. The Dutch driver can lose two factors to Norris and nonetheless seal the title based mostly on his superior win depend, with eight victories to Norris’ three.
The reigning champion dominated on the Las Vegas Strip final season, overcoming a five-second penalty and a collision to finish a U.S. triple, whereas Norris crashed out on lap three.
“This is the final push for everyone,” Verstappen mentioned forward of the season’s remaining three races, that are scheduled throughout successive weekends. “We performed well here last year. It’s a really fast circuit with long straights and plenty of overtaking opportunities.”
Norris, sixth in Brazil on Nov. 3 regardless of beginning on pole in a race Verstappen received from seventeenth on the grid, can be centered on McLaren’s constructors’ championship bid.
McLaren holds a 36-point lead over Ferrari as they chase their first constructors’ title since 1998.
Ferrari, searching for their first since 2008, stays in rivalry, whereas Red Bull sits 49 factors behind McLaren with three races left.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix additionally offers an important alternative for Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez, to regain type.
Perez, third in final 12 months’s race, mentioned, “It’s a track I enjoy. The street circuit experience, with the walls in tight, is thrilling. I know I need to perform and maximize the car and my own performance.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who secured pole place in Las Vegas final 12 months earlier than ending second, is vying with Norris for second place within the drivers’ standings. Norris at the moment holds a 24-point benefit.
Mid-table battles are equally intense, with Alpine leaping from ninth to sixth after a double podium in Brazil however sitting solely three factors forward of Haas and 5 forward of RB.
Formula One additionally welcomes a brand new race director, Portugal’s Rui Marques, who steps in following the sudden departure of German Niels Wittich. Marques takes the helm at a vital juncture within the championship.
Last 12 months’s Las Vegas race, the town’s largest-ever sporting occasion, generated almost $1.5 billion in financial influence, in response to organizers.
This 12 months, greater than 10,000 normal admission tickets have been added, together with a Ferrari help race and enhanced neighborhood engagement initiatives.
Source: www.dailysabah.com