We took the official results, grids and final standings of the five races from formula1.com, and the grids, winners and points of all 101 Grands Prix of those seasons. The Caesars Palace Grand Prix was laid out in the hotel's parking lot; the Las Vegas Grand Prix has used the Strip Circuit since 2023. The race in Austin is a separate event, covered in our history of the United States Grand Prix.
Every Las Vegas Grand Prix winner, 1981 to 2025
Jones won the first, for Williams, and Verstappen the latest, for Red Bull. Formula 1 left after 1982 and came back 41 years later, as Wikipedia's history of the race notes. Four of the five winners started on the front row: Alboreto won from third on the 1982 grid for Tyrrell, and only Russell, for Mercedes, won from pole.
| Year | Race | Winner | Team | Started | On pole (result) | Champion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Caesars Palace | Alan Jones | Williams | 2nd | Carlos Reutemann (8th) | Nelson Piquet |
| 1982 | Caesars Palace | Michele Alboreto | Tyrrell | 3rd | Alain Prost (4th) | Keke Rosberg |
| 2023 | Las Vegas | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 2nd | Charles Leclerc (2nd) | Max Verstappen |
| 2024 | Las Vegas | George Russell | Mercedes | Pole | George Russell (won) | Max Verstappen |
| 2025 | Las Vegas | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 2nd | Lando Norris (disqualified) | Lando Norris |
- Teams: Red Bull 2, both with Verstappen; Williams, Tyrrell and Mercedes 1 each.
- Podiums: Verstappen and Russell 2 each, the most.
Caesars Palace Grand Prix: the 1981 and 1982 title deciders
Both Caesars Palace races were the season finale, formula1.com notes, and both settled the championship, each time with the new champion in fifth place:
- 1981: Carlos Reutemann of Williams arrived one point ahead of Nelson Piquet and six ahead of Jacques Laffite, started from pole and finished eighth, a lap down. Piquet was fifth for Brabham and took the title by one point, 50 to 49. Jones, Reutemann's teammate, won from second: a 12th and last Grand Prix win.
- 1982: Keke Rosberg of Williams arrived three points ahead of Didier Pironi, who was not in the field, and nine ahead of John Watson. Watson finished second for McLaren and Rosberg fifth, and Rosberg won the title by five points, 44 to 39. Alboreto took a first career win.
The track ran counter-clockwise, which strained the drivers' necks, and Piquet needed 15 minutes to recover from heat exhaustion after the 1981 race, Wikipedia's account of the event says. Indy cars raced there in 1983 and 1984.
Las Vegas Strip Circuit results since 2023
The Strip Circuit is 6.201 kilometers long, the second-longest track on the calendar after Spa-Francorchamps, with a 2-kilometer stretch, about 1.2 miles, down the Strip itself. The run from pole to the Turn 1 braking point is just 150 meters, and in 2023 and 2025 the driver on pole lost the lead there:
- 2023: Verstappen dived past Charles Leclerc, the pole-sitter, into Turn 1, forcing both cars wide, and took a five-second penalty for it. A Virtual Safety Car and two Safety Cars followed; Verstappen retook the lead from Leclerc with just over 10 laps left, and Leclerc beat Sergio Pérez to second on the last lap.
- 2024: Russell led a Mercedes one-two from pole, with Lewis Hamilton up from 10th on the grid, and Verstappen's fifth place sealed the title.
- 2025: Lando Norris, on pole for McLaren, ran wide at Turn 1, and Verstappen won by 23.546 seconds from Russell in the official result. Norris and Oscar Piastri were disqualified because the rear skid blocks of both McLarens had worn below the 9-millimeter minimum, which lifted Kimi Antonelli, 17th on the grid, to third despite a five-second penalty for a false start.
Las Vegas pole position and overtaking against the season average
Pole has won one of the three races on the Strip, while the driver on pole won 41 of the 70 Grands Prix of the same three seasons, 59 percent, and 52 percent since 2000 in our pole study. With Caesars Palace it is one in five, against 46 percent of the 101 Grands Prix of those five seasons.
The order changes far more than usual. In our overtaking study, Las Vegas has the highest share of reversed pairs of any circuit used since 2000: 31.0 percent of pairs of classified finishers swapped order between the grid and the flag, against 18.9 percent overall. By the same method, its finishers ended 4.2 places from their grid slot on average, against 3.2. Race by race, against each season's average:
- 2023: 40.9 percent of pairs swapped order, the most of the 22 Grands Prix of the season, which averaged 21.9 percent. Formula1.com counted 181 overtakes, also the season's most.
- 2024: 17.0 percent, 10th of 24 and just under the season's 17.5. Formula1.com counted 113 overtakes, but a pass that is later undone does not change the order at the flag.
- 2025: 35.2 percent, third of 24, against 19.7 percent for the season.
The biggest climbs came in the two most reshuffled races: Lance Stroll from 19th on the grid to fifth for Aston Martin in 2023 and Antonelli from 17th to third in 2025, 14 places each, then Esteban Ocon, 16th to fourth for Alpine in 2023, and Hamilton, 19th to eighth for Ferrari in 2025. In 2023 the second Safety Car gave Pérez and Stroll cheap pit stops, and Pérez finished third from 11th.
Does the Las Vegas Grand Prix winner win the championship?
Once in five: Verstappen in 2023, who had already sealed that title in Qatar four rounds earlier, as Wikipedia's list of champions records and our count of the points confirms. That is 20 percent, while the year's champion won 39 of the 101 Grands Prix of those seasons, 39 percent. In the other four years someone else took the title; in 2025 it was Norris, by two points over Verstappen.
F1 titles decided in Las Vegas
Three: 1981, 1982 and 2024, according to Wikipedia's list, and our count of the official points agrees for all three. In 2024 Verstappen arrived 62 points ahead of Norris with 86 still available, finished fifth with Norris sixth, and left 63 points clear with 60 to play for, two rounds from the end. It was Verstappen's fourth title in a row.
In 2025 Norris arrived 24 points ahead of Piastri and left with the same lead after the disqualifications, while the win brought Verstappen level with Piastri, 366 points each, with 58 left. Norris won the title at the final round, in Abu Dhabi.
Saturday night in Las Vegas: start times in the US and UK
All five races were held on a Saturday: October 17, 1981, September 25, 1982, then November 18, 2023, November 23, 2024 and November 22, 2025 on the Strip, where it is a night race. Formula1.com's event pages for 2023, 2024 and 2025 give these start times:
- 2023 and 2024: 10 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, which was 1 a.m. Sunday Eastern and 6 a.m. Sunday in the UK.
- 2025: 8 p.m. Pacific, 11 p.m. Eastern on Saturday and 4 a.m. Sunday in the UK. Every session moved two hours earlier, which Pirelli said would help the drivers because conditions would not be quite as cold.
- 2026: 8 p.m. again, in the start times the FIA published for the season.
Las Vegas Grand Prix 2026: dates and session times
The 2026 race is round 21 on formula1.com's calendar, from Thursday, November 19, to Saturday, November 21, with no Sprint. Formula1.com lists every session eight hours behind UTC, and by then the US is on standard time and the UK on GMT:
- Thursday, November 19: Practice 1 at 4:30 p.m. local time (7:30 p.m. ET, 12:30 a.m. Friday UK) and Practice 2 at 8 p.m. (11 p.m. ET, 4 a.m. Friday UK).
- Friday, November 20: Practice 3 at 4:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. ET, 12:30 a.m. Saturday UK) and Qualifying at 8 p.m. (11 p.m. ET, 4 a.m. Saturday UK).
- Saturday, November 21: the Grand Prix, 50 laps of the 6.201-kilometer circuit, at 8 p.m. (11 p.m. ET, 4 a.m. Sunday UK).
Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes clinched the 2026 drivers' championship at the Mexico City Grand Prix on November 1, finishing third, with four Grands Prix still to run, and left with 380 points to Max Verstappen's 261 in formula1.com's standings. Two drivers on the grid have won in Las Vegas, Verstappen twice and Russell once. Four Grands Prix are left on formula1.com's calendar: São Paulo on November 8, Las Vegas on November 21, Qatar on November 29 and Abu Dhabi on December 6.; our title-clinch scenarios explain how the title was settled. Dates are on the 2026 F1 schedule and points on our F1 standings, and F1 has agreed to race in Las Vegas through 2037.
Las Vegas Grand Prix: frequently asked questions
Who has won the most Las Vegas Grands Prix? Max Verstappen, with two, in 2023 and 2025, both for Red Bull. George Russell won in 2024, and Alan Jones and Michele Alboreto won the Caesars Palace Grands Prix of 1981 and 1982.
Who won the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix? Max Verstappen, from second on the grid for Red Bull, ahead of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, on November 22, 2025, after both McLarens were disqualified.
What time is the 2026 Las Vegas Grand Prix? Saturday, November 21, at 8 p.m. local time, which is 11 p.m. Eastern and 4 a.m. on Sunday in the UK. Qualifying is on Friday at the same time.
Has F1 raced in Las Vegas before? Yes. The Caesars Palace Grand Prix, held in the hotel's parking lot, closed the 1981 and 1982 seasons, and both races decided the title.
Which F1 titles were decided in Las Vegas? Three: Nelson Piquet's in 1981, Keke Rosberg's in 1982 and Max Verstappen's fourth in 2024. Each new champion finished fifth.
How this was built: the official race results, starting grids and final standings of the five world-championship Grands Prix in Las Vegas, 1981, 1982 and 2023 to 2025, the grids, results, sprints and winners of all 101 Grands Prix of those seasons and the winners of every Grand Prix from 1975 to 1994, from formula1.com, up to October 20, 2026. Pole is the first slot on the official grid. Places changed and reversed pairs follow our overtaking study and count classified drivers only. The title checks add up each round's Grand Prix and sprint points; formula1.com's page for the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix gives Verstappen's second place 0 points, and we counted the 19 that the final standings include. Circuit history and the race at which each title was clinched: Wikipedia. The 2026 calendar, session times and standings: formula1.com, October 20, 2026.