Formula 1 heads to Las Vegas for the penultimate-but-two round of the season, with the drivers’ championship already decided and the fight for second place now the main event.
Kimi Antonelli arrives as the 2026 world champion, on 390 points after a remarkable breakthrough campaign for Mercedes, according to SuperSport and The F1 Formula. The 20-year-old clinched the title at the Mexico City Grand Prix with a third-place finish, becoming the youngest champion in Formula 1 history at 20 years and 68 days old. He has nine wins this season.
Behind him, the battle is fierce. Max Verstappen sits second on 279 points, George Russell third on 262, Lewis Hamilton fourth on 261, Charles Leclerc fifth on 249 and Lando Norris — fresh from winning the rain-hit Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday — sixth on 246. Just 16 points separate third from sixth, meaning every position matters in the closing weeks.
What is still to decide
The constructors’ championship is also settled, with Mercedes leading Ferrari 652 points to 510 after Brazil, according to Formula 1 and the FIA. But the drivers’ battle for second, and the fight for positions throughout the top six, will keep the final three races honest.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix, round 21 of 23, takes place on Saturday November 21 at 8pm local time — 11pm Eastern — on the 6.201 km Strip street circuit, with 17 corners and 50 laps. It is a standard weekend with no sprint race. Verstappen has won in Las Vegas twice, including last year from Lando Norris’s pole position, and holds the lap record at 1:33.365, set on the last lap of the 2025 race. George Russell won in 2024.
What comes next
Norris’s win in Brazil — after Antonelli spun out of the lead and Verstappen stormed from 21st on the grid to second in a damaged car — set up the run-in perfectly. Antonelli is chasing a tenth victory of the season, Verstappen wants another win under the lights, and Norris and Piastri will be keen to end McLaren’s season strongly. The championship may be won, but Las Vegas rarely disappoints.
