‘It was a lot of fun’ - Red Bull’s Max Verstappen overcomes time penalty to storm to victory in Las Vegas thriller

Max Verstappen fought back to storm to victory in an action-packed Las Vegas Grand Prix despite being hit with a five-second time penalty.

The Red Bull driver battled with teammate Sergio Perez and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc for the top spot, with Leclerc coming off second best and Perez settling for third.

Verstappen, who recorded his sixth win in a row and a record-extending 18th of the season, had work to do from fifth place at half-distance following the time penalty after forcing Leclerc off track at the first corner and making contact with Mercedes’ George Russell.

“It was a tough one,” Verstappen told Sky Sports. “I tried to go for it at the start but I think we both break quite late and I just ran out of grip and I ended up a bit wide, so I was given a penalty for that.

“And then I put us a little bit on the back foot, I had to pass quite a few cars and, of course, the safety car again, so at that point already there was a lot going on in the race.”

On the early contact with Russell, Verstappen added: “I think we were happy not to touch the [front wing] as it already looked quite broken, of course the structure was fine but it wasn’t ideal, there's always a bit more understeer in the car but luckily we could still win the race."

The Dutchman grafted hard and climbed up the leaderboard with incredible pace to overtake pole-sitter Leclerc and take control of the race with 13 laps to go.

He used a safety car for an additional pit stop and was able to battle back with fresh tyres.

Verstappen, who was critical of the newly added Grand Prix and described it as “99% show and 1% sporting event” on Saturday, admitted that overall it was a successful race.

“It was a lot of fun there,” the champion said. “With the DRS, that helped a lot for very good racing air. Also, I think the low degradation with the tarmac here, you could really push on the tyres, which I think was good. It was a lot of fun out there.

“A great crowd. I hope everyone enjoyed it a bit. We definitely did. So already. excited to come back here next year and hopefully try to do something similar.”

Leclerc denied Red Bull a one-two when he pipped Perez on the final lap, with the Mexican’s chances of victory hampered by a second safety car.

Although Leclerc conceded victory to Verstappen, the Monegasque driver believes it was still a great race overall.

“What a race! Honestly I enjoyed it so much,” he said. “I'm of course disappointed to finish second but at the end it was the best we could do.

"The start was tricky, Max on the inside lost a bit of grip and overtook me on the outside. We had the pace, we passed him back and we were really strong overall, that was a really good race.

"We got unlucky with the safety car, we didn’t know what the others would do and we went for track position and keeping the first place and that was difficult with the tyres. But second place with a lot of fight, I enjoyed it.

"I really enjoyed it and we needed it of course, the weekend didn’t start the way it had to start but I'm so happy. Its such an incredible sport. No better race for the first race in Las Vegas, the energy around the city is incredible.”

Alpine's Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll capitalised on a chaotic race to seal fourth and fifth-place finishes, while Carlos Sainz improved from 12th to end the race in sixth following his 10-place grid penalty.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton climbed from 10th to seventh, while his teammate Russell dropped from fourth to eighth and was unable to come back from his five-second penalty shared with Verstappen for the early collision.

Fernando Alonso sealed ninth place despite a first-corner spin as McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took the final point with a 10th-place finish.

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