Weeks After Singing Along to Tom Jones’ Tunes, Max Verstappen Adds Elvis Presley to Winning Playlist

Singing on the radio? That’s usually Lando Norris’ thing, isn’t it? Guess what, though? Max Verstappen joined the club at the Brazilian GP a couple of weeks ago. After he crossed the line to win his 17th race of the season, Christian Horner played Tom Jones’ Green, Green Grass of Home on the radio, and Verstappen sang along. Two weeks later, at the Las Vegas GP, Red Bull and Verstappen carried on this newfound tradition and invited Elvis Presley to the party!

Throughout the Las Vegas GP weekend, Max Verstappen has shown nothing but dislike for the event—which he so nicely called “99% show and 1% sporting event.” But after the race, it sounded like the three-time champion got over that feeling as he commemorated his win with a perfect Elvis Presley classic.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull, and Elvis: the perfect combination in Vegas

To understand how Elvis made it into Verstappen’s radio playlist, here’s the story behind the first installment of Radio Red Bull from Brazil. As reported by Motorsport, Christian Horner said, “We learned something else about Max. When he used to head back from the kart races, his father used to play Tom Jones tracks over and over again. So I managed to put on Green, Green Grass of Home.” 

This weekend, in Las Vegas, it looked like Verstappen needed something amazing to happen to make him start liking the Las Vegas GP. An action-filled race from beginning to end seemed to have done the trick for the Dutchman. Not only did he win the race, but he seemed genuinely impressed with the track (if his post-race radio is anything to go by). After he crossed the line, Red Bull played Elvis Presley’s Viva Las Vegas, and the three-time champion couldn’t help but belt out, “Go, Las Vegas! Viva, Las Vegas!”

As relevant as playing Green, Green Grass of Home would’ve been in Vegas, considering Tom Jones often performed residencies in Las Vegas throughout his career. But his colleague Elvis Presley’s hit Viva Las Vegas seemed way more apt, considering this was the Las Vegas GP. Max Verstappen said he isn’t a good singer in Brazil. Whether or not his and everyone else’s minds have changed regarding that fact in Vegas, there’s one thing that sure has. Verstappen’s liking toward Vegas.

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Verstappen surprised everyone after the Las Vegas GP

Following Verstappen’s “99% show and 1% sporting event” comment, he expressed his dislike for the opening ceremony as well. He said, “For me, you can skip this. It’s not about the singers. We are just standing up there, looking like a clown.” Then, after a disrupted day of running on Thursday/Friday, he revealed he didn’t like the track one bit. “No, no. I’ve had better tracks in my life There’s nothing new that I discovered or whatever. But yeah, we just get on with it,” he said. But get on with it, he did.

Starting in P2, the Dutchman was in the lead by Turn 1. But it wasn’t a straightforward win after that. He had a 5-second penalty, and the race lead changed from him to Charles Leclerc to Sergio Perez to Leclerc and back to Verstappen. There was action all around throughout the 50 laps. It was a hard-fought victory, and Verstappen was evidently happy with it. In his post-race interview, he said, “I think it created quite a good amount of racing here, so it was a lot of fun. I hope everyone enjoyed it a bit. Already excited to come back here next year!”

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What did you think of the Las Vegas GP?