Verstappen needed only to prevent conquered rival Lando Norris from outscoring him by more than two points to get the job done, with fifth place enough ahead of the ailing Briton in sixth to claim the title with two rounds remaining.
The Dutchman’s triumph places him equal fourth on the list of F1 world championship with fellow four-time title holders Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel.
He is the fifth driver in grand prix history to win four titles consecutively, following Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Juan Manuel Fangio and Sebastian Vettel.
“Something that when you grow up racing and you see all these stats of some legendary drivers and you’re like, ‘That’s very impressive and I hope one day that I can even just be on the podium, win a race, maybe win a championship’,” he said.
“It’s already hard enough to win one; of course then you also need a bit of luck to be in the right team situation to maybe win more. Luckily we did that.
“But I think that was more like the first three championships. This year we hit the ground running well, but then we had a lot of tough races.
“Something I’m very proud of is that in those tough races where we were definitely not the fastest car we kept it together as a team.
“We barely made any mistakes. We really maximised or even overperformed in some places, plus our opposition also in a few places definitely didn’t grab the points that they should have.
“All those things matter at the end of the day when you fight for a championship.”
But Verstappen’s championship success was only a small story in a bigger race that saw Mercedes score a surprising one-two result against the run of play.
Mercedes has struggled for consistency this season, but its troubled car was immediately at home in the cold and low-grip conditions of the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, topping every session from first practice to the grand prix.
Russell executed flawlessly off the line, helped in part by Ferrari teammates Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc battling for second place. Leclerc jumped front-row starter Sainz from fourth to slip into second place, and he immediately set about closing down the leading Mercedes in a battle he thought he would be for victory.
But the Monegasque found his tyres were already failing after just three laps attacking Russell, he plummeted second off the pace and was repassed by Sainz and even Verstappen behind him.
Both Ferrari drivers pitted early to switch to fresh rubber, leaving Verstappen to size up Russell in the lead. His Red Bull Racing car was performing more strongly than expected in the race, but after the first pit stops it became clear it had nothing for the Mercedes car, which opened an unassailable 10s lead by the end of lap 17.
But entering the fray around the first pit stops was Hamilton, who had started 10th after botching both his pole attempts at the end of qualifying. The elder Briton had Russell-beating pace in the sister car and was making quick work through the frontrunning pack, easily passing Norris after their first stops before bearing down on the ailing Ferrari drivers.
In the end he didn’t need to pass either, choosing instead to make a second pit stop, forcing the entire field to convert to a two-stop race. Ferrari responded on the subsequent laps, but both drivers rejoined the race in the Mercedes car’s wake.
Only Verstappen stood between Hamilton and his teammate, but the Dutchman put up only a token defensive effort, knowing he only needed to finish ahead of Norris to in the title. He barged through with 19 laps remaining and set his sights on the leader.
Russell made his final stop on lap 32, and 11.2 seconds split the teammates with 18 laps remaining. Hamilton reeled in the sister car with increasing pace, heightening expectations of a victory showdown, but Russell had the situation under control stabilising the gap at five seconds late in the race, sealing a famous an unexpected victory.
“To get a victory here, pole position, dominant weekend, one-two with Lewis as well, we couldn’t have chosen a better place to make this happen,” he said.
Hamilton praised his surprisingly quick Mercedes but was disappointed to have cost himself a chance at victory with his qualifying errors.
“If I’d done my job yesterday, it would have been a breeze today,” he said. “But I had fun coming from the back, coming from 10th, and the team did a fantastic job.
“We don’t know why we were so quick this weekend. That’s the best the car has ever felt, so I’m grateful to have been a part of getting it to that point.”
Carlos Sainz battled past Max Verstappen late in the race to take the final podium place, though the Spaniard lamented that his Ferrari had been slower than expected at a circuit the team had hoped would move it closer to the top of the constructors title table.
“It was just a damage limitation race,” he said. “I was not comfortable with the car, not strong today.
“We came back with a P3, a podium that is not enough for what we expected, but the maximum that we could do today.”
Leclerc finished fourth ahead of Verstappen and Norris, with Oscar Piastri completing the top seven for McLaren.
Nico Hülkenberg ran a strong race to eighth, scoring four points for Haas to take the American team past Alpine to sixth on the title table.
Yuki Tsunoda was ninth for RB ahead of Sergio Pérez, who rose from 15th on the grid to score a single point for Red Bull Racing.