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What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

The flights have been cancelled and the Strip is ready for a Formula 1 party.

Congratulations to Max Verstappen on a fourth straight drivers' world championship, and George Russell on his victory from pole this weekend.

While the Saturday night celebrations are just beginning in Sin City, it's Sunday morning here in the UK - and we've all been up very early. So let's call it a day now and go and get some breakfast.

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The second race in this final triple-header is the Qatar Grand Prix, with extra points on offer as it's a sprint weekend.

Thanks for your company, folks. First practice is Friday, 29 November at 13:30 GMT.

We'll see you then!

More from Lando Norris on the title fight, he told Sky Sports: "I didn't even expect to be in the title fight. I was happy with how calm I was and how focused I was, there's definitely more pressure and more eyes, nerves and demands on me making sure I go out and don't mess qualifying up or make a mistake in the race, stay in the race, don't get taken out.

"You have to drive better when you get to that point and I feel like I have, I feel like since Zandvoort I've done close to a perfect job. There are things I need to improve on as always, but I feel like I've done a good job, especially the second half of the season.

"The first half we were suddenly like 'oh we are fighting them [Red Bull]'. I don't think I or us as a team were mentally ready for fighting against the big boys and execute perfectly.

"As much as we would like to believe we were ready, we weren't and we paid the price a little bit.

"It was also us there fighting Max and no one else. We started off the season off worst of the top four teams and we ended up being the most consistent and probably the best team.

"I'm more proud than anything else and I don't regret anything. Even if it was a perfect year on my behalf we couldn't have won the championship this year, I think Max drove too well.

"Red Bull and the team did too good of a job for us and it was just lost in the first six races, the points gap is what it is now but already after six races. I'm still happy it was us and we put up a good fight. I look forward to next year being there at the beginning."

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Reigning world champion Max Verstappen spoke to Sky Sports about his fourth championship in a row: "It feels great, of course I mean it's been a very long season. Many races, many good races but also many tough races. It was all about optimising, trying, sometimes, to limit the damage. But at the end of the day, just very proud of what we have achieved.

On whether the championship was ever in doubt in his mind: "I mean I never really liked to believe so but of course at times it looked very tough. I didn't want to give up at all. That's not how I am anyway. At times it was not easy with the car, clear lack of pace in places, but we managed to get the best result out of it or sometimes even more than what we deserved.

"At the end of the day, most of the time, you create your own luck, and I think that's what we did most of the time."

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McLaren are leading the constructors' as we pack up and head to the penultimate race in Qatar, but the gap between themselves and second-placed Ferrari is just 24 points now. Red Bull, meanwhile, are 53 behind McLaren and 29 points off the Italian team's tally.

The fight for sixth has changed hands again with Haas jumping back above Alpine by one point thanks to Nico Hulkenberg P8 in Vegas.

1. McLaren - 608

2. Ferrari - 584

3. Red Bull - 555

4. Mercedes - 425

5. Aston Martin - 86

6. Haas - 50

7. Alpine - 49

8. RB - 46

9. Williams - 17

10. Sauber - 0

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Max Verstappen on his favourite championship victory: "Every championship is different, I think last year's is my favourite one, even though sometimes I think people didn't appreciate it enough of what we did achieve, 10 in a row. Of course we had a dominant car but I don't think it was as dominant as people think but this one definitely means a lot, how we handled everything."

On his relationship with Red Bull and the rumour of him moving to a different team: "For me I'm just very proud to be part of the team and we are now celebrating our fourth world title together. There's definitely nothing on my mind. Nothing else on my mind."

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The fight for 2024 drivers' championship is over. Max Verstappen's wins early in the season put on the road to success and now he can relax heading into the final two races of the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

So, attention turns to the scrap for second between Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc. The McLaren driver is 21 points clear of the Ferrari man, but next weekend is a sprint event.

C. Max Verstappen - 403

2. Lando Norris - 340

3. Charles Leclerc - 319

4. Oscar Piastri - 268

5. Carlos Sainz - 259

6. George Russell - 217

7. Lewis Hamilton - 208

8. Sergio Perez - 152

9. Fernando Alonso - 62

10. Nico Hulkenberg - 35

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Lando Norris' title fight has come to an end with Max Verstappen and he told Sky Sports: "Congrats to Max, as much as it hurts a little bit, saying congrats doesn't hurt, but knowing the championship is 100% over you always have a little hope inside.

"He drove an incredible season and when you have the quickest car he dominated and when he didn't he was still there and always on my heels. He made my life tough, we made his tough at times I'm sure but he drove a better season.

"The race was pretty pants, bad pace, grip, tyre management, just a poor weekend from us."

On the rear wing change: "No, everyone can say whatever they want. It made a small amount of difference, a lot less than everyone thinks, it's got nothing to do with that."

Ferrari got one driver on the podium in Las Vegas but the other, Charles Leclerc, was far from happy with how his grand prix played out in Sin City.

His post-race radio was littered with naughty words, which will be interesting to see what the FIA make of it, as he cursed himself for being "too nice".

"It's not even being nice, it's just being respectful," he said. "I know I need to shut up, but at one point it's always the same, so..."

His engineer Bryan Bozzi sheepishly replied: "OK. But anyway, you did the right thing for the team."

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Carlos Sainz finishes in third in the Ferrari, he said: “It was a bit of a shock, I was expecting to be strong on the medium tyres but I think it lasted eight, nine laps on me and then from there onwards it was a damage limitation race.

“I was not comfortable with the car, not strong today, I was a bit quicker and go for the win but we simply didn’t have it in ourselves today. We can work with P3, a podium is not enough for what we expected but the maximum for what we could do today.

“I think this race has delivered a good show again and I look forward to coming back here in the future.”

On racing with Charles Leclerc: “It’s been like that for four year, Charles and I have gone wheel to wheel pretty much every two or three races because we share the same piece of tarmac and we are both very competitive and close on pace and we find ourselves always fighting each other at the same time as we fight the Mercedes, the Red Bulls and the McLarens.

“I don’t think we could have finished more than P3 and P4 today but it is what it is, we will keep pushing.”

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Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton who finished second at the Las Vegas Grand Prix: "Firstly congrats to max wining the chap, still with several races to go. If I'd done my job yesterday it would have been a breeze today. But its okay, I had fun coming from tenth and the team did a fantastic job.

"We don't know why we were quick this weekend but that's the best the car has ever felt. So I'm grateful to be a part of getting to that point.

"It's not the climate, its just that the race is so late. you're going to bed at five, six AM and starting the day much later which is quite difficult, you don't get much sun and it messes with your rhythm. Otherwise its so cold, maybe the reason why we did so well was because it was cold.

"If the car drives like that in the next couple of races then I think we’ll be in a good spot to challenge the guys up front. The championship’s done, so now it’s just all out, fight for the best positions possible."

10 years since his first championship: "We both looked a lot younger then, didn't we? [he said to 2009 champion Jenson Button]".

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Mercedes’ George Russell wins his third race of his career, he said: “It’s going to be a good party, I was planning on flying in a couple of hours but I’m definitely not getting on that flight. I’m going to enjoy this evening with all my team.

“It’s been a dream of a weekend I don’t know how we’ve been so quick but I’m just riding this wave right now.”

On driving at night in Las Vegas: “Vegas is just crazy place and when you’re driving and you see all of this in the background, I can’t describe this place and to get victory here, pole position and a dominant weekend, one-two with Lewis as well, we couldn’t have chosen a better place to make this happen.”

On the race itself: “I was just waiting for something to happen, the two races I’ve been on pole before it’s always been chaos, rain, dry, always something happening, last race in Brazil with the red flag there is always something happening.

“I was feeling confident and I had a good gap but I was just waiting for something to happen and it didn’t, so I guess luck has turned and I’m so happy right now.”

On the support of his fans, Max Verstappen added: "It's amazing to see the fans everywhere supporting me, they got a bit spoilt last year with all the wins so they had to wait for it a long time in the middle of the season.

"They are an incredible support and it's great to see them here. To the team, what can I say, we've been through a whole lot together and all these highs we are achieving together is just very special to do that, with all the group of people we have at the track and back at the factory, they are always pushing flat out to give me the car to fight for the title."

On the future: "If you look to next year right now I think it's going to be a proper battle between a lot of cars, but I'm hungry.

"I'm going to enjoy this and there are still two more races that I want to do well. We take a little break and we try and go for it again next year."

Max Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase is asked by Sky Sports to tell is something we might not know about four-time world champion Max Verstappen. After a long pause, the answer is: "He loves cats".

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Andrew Priestley: Of all his World Championship titles, this is Max Verstappen’s most impressive. He took advantage of his car’s dominance in the opening races, got the early points on the board and then out-drove and out-performed the car when it was the 3rd or 4th fastest on the grid.

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On if this is something he thought would happen when he was younger, Max Verstappen said: "I was just happy to be there [racing] and dreaming of potential victories and standing on the podium, just normal things that are already very difficult to achieve.

"We then just got onto that run of a tough few years where we kept trying and then we hit the ground running with the new concept."

On it being a competitive season: "It was a very challenging season, also as a person at times it was very challenging and I had to be calm. In a way I still prefer last season, I enjoyed it a lot but I think this season it has taught me a lot of lessons.

"I am very proud of us as a team and in a way that makes it a very special and beautiful season."

Champagne momentpublished at 08:03 Greenwich Mean Time 24 November 2024

08:03 GMT 24 November 2024

Franco Colapinto should also get a glass of bubbly today. The Argentine was involved in that 50G crash in Q2 yesterday and starting from the pit lane for today's race. He said he was a little bit sore when talking to Martin Brundle on the grid but he recovered well to finish P14, which will give his mechanics a boost after all their hard work over the weekend.

George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz are now soaked through with champagne while Queen's 'We Are the Champions' rings out for Max Verstappen.

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Max Verstappen on winning his fourth consecutive world championship: "It’s been a long season, we start off amazing and we were cruising but then we had a tough run as a team but we kept it together, we kept working on improvements and I couldn’t be more proud of everyone, what they have done for me.

"To stand here as a four-time world champion is something I never thought was possible. At the moment I’m feeling relieved but also very proud.”

Race winner George Russell says he was planning on flying home from Las Vegas tonight, but as he's just taken victory, he's going to cancel that flight and rip up the Strip instead.

Will Lewis Hamilton be joining him to celebrate Mercedes' one-two? Who knows. After finishing second from his P10 start he said: "If I'd done my job yesterday, it would have been a breeze today."

The drivers have made their way back to the podium now and all that is left to do is pop that giant magnum of champagne.

All the drivers came over to congratulate Max Verstappen on his championship achievement. The special t-shirts have also been brought are out across the Red Bull garage - plenty of four motifs around the Las Vegas circuit.

Mustn’t forget Alain Prost in all of this, who is also a four-time champion.

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