Max Verstappen wins fourth F1 title, Liam Lawson off pace

By Alex Powell

On a weekend that saw Red Bull stablemate Max Verstappen win a fourth consecutive Formula One world title, Kiwi Liam Lawson endured a frustrating race to finish 16th at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

While Mercedes took a one-two finish through George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen’s fifth place was enough to seal another championship, as title rival Lando Norris (sixth) was unable to narrow the gap at the top.

With two Grands Prix and a sprint race left in the season, Verstappen’s points total cannot be overhauled, even as Red Bull continue to lose ground to McLaren and Ferrari in the constructors championship.

Verstappen’s four successive titles sees him emulate Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Juan Manuel Fangio as drivers to achieve the feat.

However, even with pressure mounting on Sergio Perez, Lawson wasn’t able to capitalise on his stablemate’s woes. The Kiwi was the last-placed of the four Red Bull cars, as promotion rivals Perez (10th) and RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda (ninth) both achieved points finishes.

In particular, RB’s race strategy came back to bite Lawson, as cold weather proved a challenge for teams to navigate. Lawson’s second race stint saw him get through 25 laps on the slower, hard tyre. And by the time he was finally called into the pits for the final time, another stint of hards counted against the Kiwi.

All 10 teams will now head to Qatar for the championship’s penultimate round, before the season concludes in Abu Dhabi at the start of December.

Having qualified 15th, but start 14th after a crash to Williams’ Franco Colapinto, Lawson pulled off an opening lap overtake on Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, while Perez lost a place to Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin.

However, when Alonso was forced to pit on lap five, Lawson and Perez renewed their on-track rivalry, as the Red Bull driver overtook the Kiwi five laps later.

As drivers started to pit to end their opening stints on medium tyres, Lawson temporarily rose to eighth, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was slapped with a five-second penalty for a false start.

With cold conditions on-track playing havoc, Lawson headed for the pits on lap 12, and emerged in 19th as the teams re-evaluated their strategies.

The Kiwi did make a place back when Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was forced into the pits on consecutive laps, after accidentally missing his own garage, and needing a second attempt.

Meanwhile, as he fights to save his Formula One career, Perez climbed as high as second place before he was passed by Verstappen, as the decision to start on the hard tyre worked wonders for the Mexican.

Perez finally pitted on lap 18, and was overtaken by Lawson - who climbed back to 13th as a result. But given Perez was on faster tyres in a faster car, Lawson could only defend for so long before he was passed again.

While the pair came wheel to wheel in Perez’s home race in Mexico, there was no repeat north of the border, as the Red Bull driver finally got the better of his junior on lap 25. Perez completed his final pit stop on lap 33, while Lawson moved up into 10th as teams brought their drivers in for the last time.

But with his tyres more than 20 laps old, Lawson continued to lose places, and fell to 17th by the time he completed his final stop on lap 39.

And given he swapped hard tyres for hard tyres to finish the race, it was only Ocon’s third pit stop that saw the Kiwi improve, as he sets his sights on Qatar next weekend.

Lawson struggled in Qatar last year, finishing 17th in the final race of his short tenure for then-AlphaTauri, deputising for an injured Daniel Ricciardo.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission