Reigning Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen took victory in the 2025 edition of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but Lando Norris took another big step towards a first F1 title.
Team-mate Oscar Piastri was fortunate that his McLaren withstood a potentially race-ending collision at Turn 1, but a recovery to fourth still leaves the Australian 30 points back from Norris - with Verstappen another 12 back.
Norris's bid to convert pole into victory was compromised right away, as a marginally worse launch than Verstappen's meant he felt compelled to go sharp to the inside line to cover off the Red Bull - and then just didn't really make the turn-in at Turn 1.
The door was wide open for Verstappen to swoop into the lead, and George Russell made use of Norris's error, too, attacking round the outside of Turns 3 and 4 and getting a better run through those to complete the move on the straight.
It looked early on in that opening stint that Russell would have something for Verstappen, but the Mercedes man soon reported a repeat of the steering issue that had compromised him in qualifying - and he dropped back towards Norris, before making his pitstop on lap 17 of 50.
Norris came in five laps later, and Verstappen followed soon after, the status quo maintained among the top three. But Russell again had his pace disappear after the early laps of the stint, so hinted to the team he would be willing not to put up much of a fight against Norris to safeguard the podium.
That's exactly how it played out, the move made on the run to Turn 14 on lap 34, with Norris then told to go after Verstappen but that proving never really on the cards - as Verstappen answered to every burst of pace the McLaren produced, winning comfortably in the end.
The final gap would be exaggerated to nearly 21 seconds as Norris slowed dramatically in the final few laps, reportedly in extreme fuel management mode, but still stayed ahead of Russell.
A different contest played out for fourth place, which very nearly overlapped with the podium given how much Norris slowed and how much Russell himself struggled in the end.
Piastri had taken a hard hit to his McLaren at Turn 1 as Liam Lawson locked up, the incident demoting Piastri behind not just Lawson but the other Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar - though Lawson's front wing then failed to cause an early virtual safety car stoppage.
Things still looked quite bleak for Piastri, particularly when he made a Turn 12 mistake chasing after Hadjar and allowed Charles Leclerc to line up and pull off a move - but after Piastri himself then finally overtook Hadjar, he pitted to undercut a battle brewing between Leclerc and former team-mate Carlos Sainz right ahead of him.
It worked a treat. Sainz pitted and rejoined right ahead of Russell but was powerless on cold tyres to prevent a Turn 4 move, while Leclerc then rejoined the race between the two of them - and never really came close to finding a way past Piastri again.
In the meantime, all three had been undercut, in an extreme way, by Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli.
Antonelli pitted during that first virtual safety car period, fitting a set of hards that he would take to the end - encouraged to do so by a five-second penalty hanging over him for an apparent jump start, one not obvious from the broadcast.
His pace held up remarkably, with Piastri unable to get past once he'd caught up. The McLaren driver stayed close behind to inherit fourth, but the likes of Leclerc and Sainz faded enough at the very end not to be able to capitalise on the penalty.
Isack Hadjar, Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton completed the top 10. Hamilton had made his way up to 12th from 19th on the grid in the opening-lap melees, but his only progress after that came at the expense of the Haas cars of Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman.
He was also involved in the incident that brought out the second virtual safety car period of the race, as he was overtaken by Alex Albon after making a mistake pursuing Ocon - with Albon clipping the Ferrari in the process so shedding some front wing debris, and effectively ruining his race through damage and a five-second penalty.
Williams waved the white flag on Albon's race eventually. He was one of three drivers to retire, the other two having collided on the opening lap - with Gabriel Bortoleto making a right mess of Turn 1 and steaming into Lance Stroll's Aston Martin.
Bortoleto was handed a 10-second time penalty as he couldn't serve it in the race, that is converted into a five-place grid drop for Qatar.
