George Russell won the Las Vegas Grand Prix in dominant fashion, but Max Verstappen clinched Formula 1’s top prize early Sunday morning by overcoming a controversy-filled season to clinch his fourth consecutive world-driving championship.

Mr. Verstappen drove Red Bull to a fifth-place finish in the 50-lap race under the bright lights of Sin City, well behind Mr. Russell, who led from the pole to the checkered flag to capture his third career win. Lewis Hamilton crossed second, giving Mercedes a coveted 1-2 finish. Carlos Sainz was third, putting Ferrari on the podium.

With two races and a sprint remaining in the 2024 season, Mr. Verstappen needed to finish ahead of Lando Norris to clinch the world championship in Las Vegas, and the Dutchman did just that as Mr. Norris’ McLaren was sixth.

“To stand here as a four-time world champion is something I never thought possible,” Mr. Verstappen said after the race. “I’m relieved in a way, but also very proud.”

Mr. Verstappen, Alain Prost, Sebastian Vettel, Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher and Mr. Hamilton are the only drivers to win at least four world titles. Mr. Verstappen and Red Bull breezed to his third world title in 2023 winning 19 of 22 races. This season has been more challenging due to car problems, emerging rivals, and off-track drama.

It began with Red Bull team  boss Christian Horner facing allegations of sending sexually suggestive texts and photos to a former female employee. An independent investigation cleared Mr. Horner of any wrongdoing, but questions about transparency and Mr. Verstappen’s future with Red Bull continued. Order seemed restored as Mr. Verstappen won seven of the first 10 races. But he went the next 10 races without a victory before recovering from starting 17^th to win the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil earlier this month.

Mr. Verstappen said issues with the car were the main reasons for the winless drought, though he reached the podium four times, earning valuable points that kept him comfortably ahead of Mr. Norris.

“It’s been a long season,” Mr. Verstappen admitted. “It started off amazing, and then we had a tough run. As a team, we kept it together and kept working on improvements. I had to be calm. I enjoyed last season, but this season taught me a lot of lessons and I’m proud of the way we handled it as a team and that makes it a very special and beautiful season.”

Making the podium even when he didn’t have the best car on the day proved key to capturing the championship. Mr. Verstappen admitted his team seemed “lost” at times. “You always have to believe in yourself,” he said. “It’s a lot of people that have to come together and a lot of things that have to come together with the car, especially in the middle of the season where we had a lot of issues where we didn’t really understand what was going on. But then I’m also very happy and I’m proud of how the team reacted, responded, and turned it around a bit. It’s been quite a tough season for us overall.”

Mr. Verstappen clinching the world championship overshadowed Mr. Russell’s dominant win in the second Grand Prix held at Las Vegas. He was never challenged as he took advantage of cool conditions to finish nearly eight seconds ahead of Mr. Hamilton, who started 10^th after a dreadful outing during his final qualifying run.

“Vegas is a crazy, crazy place,” Mr. Russell said. “When you’re driving you see all of this in the background. To get the victory here, pole position, dominant weekend, a 1-2 with Lewis as well, we couldn’t have picked a better place to make this happen.”

The Las Vegas Grand Prix was the last of the three Formula 1 races held in the United States after stops at Miami and Austin. The 11 p.m. start locally was expected to attract more than 300,000 fans and pump $1.5 billion into the economy, well worth the road closures and other inconveniences.

“The actual race is absolutely fantastic,” Mr. Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, said. “It’s such a great event. They’ve really done a mega job this year. I can’t wait to come back next year.”