Las Vegas Grand Prix – Formula 1: Live leaderboard and lap-by-lap updates as Max Verstappen looks to claim fourth-consecutive world title by outscoring Lando Norris

Hamilton is hurtling around in Las Vegas and has cut the gap to 8.9s to Russell at the front of the race.

Verstappen though has so far done exactly what he needs to do, but you’ve got to say he’s not exactly had a lot of opposition.

The McLarens are down in sixth and seventh with Norris ahead, around 15s behind Verstappen, who looks happy just to do his own thing, and who’d blame him?

ANOTHER fastest lap from Hamilton – the rate he’s going, could be a very interesting finish for Mercedes to negotiate…

Russell, flying out in first, goes in to pit.

Out he comes STILL flying out in first, after building up a 32s gap to second place, currently occupied by his team-mate Hamilton.

It’s looking like a one-two for Mercedes at the moment with Hamilton absolutely flying round the course, but all eyes are on Verstappen as he bears down on title No 4.

Hamilton is having a very good race so far, and has the fastest lap at the moment.

He’s closing in on Verstappen, who is just 0.6s ahead of him.

Verstappen – who is currently on course to finish the race 71 points clear of Norris – doesn’t really want to have to be worrying about what’s happening on his tail, but it’s not really his race tonight.

And Hamilton capitalises, passing the Dutchman in an incident-free move down the straight, on his way to ANOTHER fastest lap at around 1:36.4s.

Impressive stuff from the soon-to-be Ferrari man.

Hamilton is not the only one unhappy about the late decision to keep Sainz out on track.

There will be a few replays of that incident at race control, you can be sure, but Sainz himself has given his team a bit of a warning on the mic.

In his defence, he had been asking to be pitted for a long time, before finally being called in on lap 29

With Hamilton breathing down the neck of his future team-mate Leclerc, who is in turn right on the tail of Sainz, Ferrari make the call to pit the Spanish driver.

But Sainz at the very last second stays out after an extremely late call, but it did look like he had crossed the line into the pit line before veering back out.

Hamilton is not happy, as he heads into the pits, along with Verstappen, who loses a second as he goes wide around one corner as he struggles with grip.

Looks like we’ve got another retirement on the cards.

Albon is being called in despite a strong showing that has the Williams driver in 10th, as he joins Gasly with another early finish.

Piastri and Alonso have both come back in for second pit stops, and it sounds like Sainz is keen on a two-stop strategy, too.

So a little update on the top five as we reach the halfway point…

2. Verstappen +10.150 (Red Bull)

3. Sainz +2.245 (Ferrari)

4. Leclerc +1.025 (Ferrari)

5. Hamilton +1.037 (Mercedes)

The McLarens have really not been too competitive out there so far, Norris down in sixth and about 5s behind Hamilton, while Piastri is down in eighth – although the Australian did have that five-second penalty, of course.

Interestingly though at the top the lead has remained consistent for Russell from Verstappen over the last few laps.

The Brit, after securing a fourth career pole, has looked strong throughout so far, and now has about 9.9 seconds on Verstappen, though his race is really being run between himself and Norris.

Looks as if Max Verstappen is assured of his fourth world title. Four on the trot. Lewis Hamilton has done that and so has Sebastian Vettel.

He will be taken in a Rolls Royce Phantom to the Ballagio, so I am told. A strange choice of car for America?

George Russell driving brilliantly in a fabulous Mercedes – a win seems well in reach.

We’ve had our first DNF of the race, as Gasly succumbs to that apparent engine issue and finishes his race early after such a promising performance in qualifying.

Perez was holding onto second spot for a while but making more or less no inroads on Russell’s lead.

It looked like he was struggling with grip, and it isn’t long before Verstappen assumes control of the pursuit.

He’s currently about 9.8s behind Russell, with the Ferrari duo in third and fourth, not too far behind him.

It’s all happening out in Vegas.

Gasly is not a happy man out there.

He’s frantically shouting down the mic that he’s got no power, but there’s nothing registering for his team back at race control.

But it looks like things are going from bad to worse, and he’s got what seems to be engine trouble as he makes for the pit.

Hamilton hands the lead back to his team-mate as he too enters the pits, with Russell leading from Perez and Verstappen.

He seems not too happy at where he’s come out, in seventh between Norris and Magnussen, but his team are quick on the mic to tell him that he might have been another five places back had they timed it slightly differently.

What the hell man? How many places have I just lost?

In goes Russell, to hand the lead to his team-mate Hamilton.

Verstappen’s timing isn’t too great, as he comes back out onto the track in a bit of traffic, finding himself in fourth place as the filling in a Hulkenberg-Sainz sandwich.

It’s a bit early, but as it stands, Verstappen is going to make it four in a row…

Sainz is next into the pit as Verstappen moves up to second, but he’s still 8.6s behind ledaer Russell.

Piastri picked up a five second penalty after what was ruled to be a false start at lights out, and heads into the pits where he serves his time.

Verstappen is now being called into the pits too as we approach the quarter-of-the-way mark.

Well did Leclerc go too early?

It looks like it – he’s already headed into the pit after dropping back into fourth.

Verstappen has made headway and is up in third in behind Sainz in second, while Norris is next into the pit, along with Albon and Stroll.

Hamilton has been busy early on, and is now up into fifth and is closing in on Gasly in fourth.

After an excellent early battle between the top two, Leclerc has backed off just a little and the gap is down to about 2s.

There appears to be a little bit of debris on the left hand side of Russell’s car, but it’s nothing too major and can probably last until the pit stop.

Hamilton has passed Hulkenburg and tries to take Piastri too, but the Australian holds on for now…

As I say that, Verstappen gets past Gasly and is up unto fourth.

Leclerc is really pushing Russell now, and the two are side-by-side at one point, but the Brit holds firm and just about keeps his nose ahead.

Alonso is already in the pit, and Piastri has been noted for a false start.

So four laps in and Leclerc and Russell are already locked in a fascinating battle.

The Mercedes had stretched to just over a second ahead of the Ferrari but Leclerc has cut the deficit to about three tenths as the top two exchange fastest laps early on.

Verstappen is still in fifth, about a second ahead of Norris in sixth.

Russell starts brilliantly and holds onto his lead going into the first corner, but it’s Charles Leclerc who makes the move.

The Ferrari driver takes both Perre Gasly and Sainz before the first bend.

Verstappen and Norris are side by side, but there is no overtake.

Perez is locked in a brilliant battle with Alonso, Albon and Magnussen towards the back, but has dropped one place to 16th, while Alonso is up two into 14th.

Out go the lights and we’re away in Las Vegas!

Right it’s formation lap time, as George Russell leads the pack out for one last trip round the track to familiarise themselves with what is still a very new addition to the F1 roster.

Almost all of them are on the hards.

Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas and Franco Colapinto are on the hards, and Fernando Alonso is the only one who’s gone for the soft tyres.

With the lights in Sin City, it’s a real kaleidoscope of colours out there with all the liveries and the bodies milling about on the grid.

There’s 12 MILLION light bulbs shining out in Vegas tonight, according to Sky…

Just a few minutes to go now!

We’ve got just under 10 minutes to go – which is more than emough time to enjoy Mail Sport’s exceptional exclusive interview with Red Bull chief Christian Horner from earlier this week.

Horner talks all about the support from his wife, how he can achieve true catharsis this year, and his fued with Toto Wolff.

Fangio. Schumacher. Vettel. Hamilton. Verstappen?

The Red Bull icon can become only the fifth driver ever to win four straight F1 world championships today.

He’s 62 ahead with just two more races after today – as long as he goes into Qatar with a lead of at least 60 points, the crown will be his.

Boyz II Men are up next as they give a very impressive three-way acapella performance of the US national anthem.

There’s also a strong musical presence as you’d imagine on the grid, with Public Enemy icon Flava Flav out there too.

And yes – he is wearing a massive bejewelled clock.

I guess you could say it’s been a ROCKY grid walk this morning…

Sylvester Stallone jokes that he would have been racing this morning if it wasn’t for a ‘bad ankle’.

Brundle responds: ‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear about that.’

Here we go, vintage Brundle.

After bumping into Paul Mescal he find himself face-to-face to the fastest man in the world Noah Lyles.

After introducing himself to the sprinter, a very loud Lyles shouts in his face that he can’t hear him as one of the cars picks exactly the right moment to start up and rev the engine.

Franco Colapinto is up next, who reassures that he is ‘a bit sore but ok’ after a nasty crash in qualifying.

Well I’m not sure that Martin Brundle has ever received a similar introduction to his grid walk as Bruce Buffer delcares him the greatest in the world in a truly bizarre set up you’d only see in Vegas.

We’ve already had the obligatory awkward exhanges from Martin, an icon in his own right, who has got his mic tangled up with a passerby and lost his camera.

He’s amazingly made it all the way through a melee of bodies without finding a single driver to chat to, but Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer comes to the rescue to talk Martin through Brad Pitt’s escapades last night to save us all.

This was the aerial view ahead of practice a couple of nights ago, and it’s not a bad one is it?

As you’d imagine, the big names are out in their droves this morning.

We’ve already seen Gladiator stars Paul Mescal and Pedro Mescal chatting to Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz on Sky’s coverage about everything down to the amount of torque drivers experience pulling away at lights out.

We’ve even had Brad Pitt out and about around the track during qualifying, w ith the Hollywood A-lister ‘fainting’ while filming some stunts for his upcoming movie.

And then there are the casual fans; so far we’ve had model Winnie Harlow, musician supreme John Legend and acting legend Terry Crewes in and around the paddock in the last hour or so.

With such a roster of famous faces, you fear for Martin Brundle who will have a busy, busy evening with his grid walk…

Even the flags have been given the Vegas treatment!

And look at all those lights! It’s a new course on the grid, but you can’t deny it’s already making a spectacular splash.

Did we expect anything remotely verging on traditional from Vegas?

Well we’ve mentioned the podium-sitters heading into the race this evening – or morning depending on wherever you’re watching! – but how did qualifying play out?

Well the first couple of practice sessions were dominated by Lewis Hamilton after a horror show at Interlagos, before his team-mate came out fastest by just 0.098s in quali.

But how did those three sessions play out yesterday, I hear you asking? Well you can take a look at the link below!

Welcome, welcome everyone to Mail Sport’s LIVE coverage of the Las Vegas Grand Prix!

The F1 circus – and an absolute glut of stars from cross the world – has arrived in Sin City for the most extravagent and flashy race in the calendar out in the Nevada desert.

We’ve got George Russell on pole ahead of Carlos Sainz and – yep, that’s right – Pierre Gasly completing the top three, but more on that a bit later!

Stick with us for the next 45 minutes or so as we take you through everything that’s happened over the last couple of days as we build up to lights out.