Las Vegas witnessed the thrilling penultimate Grand Prix of a Formula One season that has been dominated with an iron fist by Dutchman Max Verstappen in the Red Bull-Honda RBPT, with which his team-mate Sergio Pérez a distant second.

The Dutchman arrived in the capital of the game with a third successive title already under his belt for a number of weeks and the aim of taking his record number of wins in a season to 18 (out of 21) after the 15 he achieved last season. And he did it, albeit in perhaps the toughest race of all.

'Mad Max' won in a close finish with a time of 1h:29:08.289, ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc (2.070s) and team-mate Sergio Perez (2.241s), with Frenchman Esteban Ocon fourth, Canadian Lance Stroll fifth and Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr. sixth.

Verstappen needed 37 laps to take the lead. | © Getty Images
Verstappen needed 37 laps to take the lead. | © Getty Images

The Formula One King now has 549 points overall in a championship overall in a Championship in which he has only missed out on three Grands Prix (fifth in Singapore and second in Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia), while team-mate Sergio Pérez secured second place with 273 points. 

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain secured third place with 232 points (seventh in Nevada), while Spaniards Carlos Sainz Jr. and Fernando Alonso will be battling for fifth place overall in Abu Dhabi next weekend as they both have 200 points, followed by Lando Norris (195) who crashed his car in Las Vegas.

Verstappen was second to Leclerq in practice and both went wide in the first corner of the race, resulting in a five-second penalty for the world champion. He rejoined the race in eleventh place and made contact with Russell's car on his comeback, but this time he bizarrely avoided the penalty.

Max Verstappen is currently the undisputed King of Formula One. @ Getty Images
Max Verstappen is currently the undisputed King of Formula One. @ Getty Images

Meanwhile 'Checo' Perez and Leclerq were engaged in a spectacular duel for pole position until Verstappen moved up to third and Red Bull 'ordered' the Monegasque to let him pass. Verstappen took the lead on lap 37 (with 13 laps to go) and didn't hesitate to take it away from his team-mate, who emerged victorious from his duel with the Mexican to finish second.

"It was a tough race. I tried to go for it at the start and I think we both braked quite late and then I just ran out of grip. I had to pass some cars to get into the battle with them (Leclerc and Sergio Perez). But then you could clearly see with the DRS around that it was very powerful here. It was definitely a lot of fun," explained the Dutchman.