Lando Norris Moves Nearer to Championship as Max Verstappen Takes Las Vegas Grand Prix Win

The McLaren Lando Norris moved closer to his first championship with second place in the Vegas race following the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

Norris now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place behind Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will secure the title in the desert as long as he doesn't surrender over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

Piastri, so strong in the first half of the championship, has failed to finish on the podium for six consecutive events

"Verstappen had a good race. I made the mistake early on and was too punchy on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It's still a good result to secure second. I've got to congratulate Max and Red Bull"

After Qatar, the last event of the championship takes place in Abu Dhabi on 7 December

The key stories of among Formula 1's most prestigious races included:

• Lando Norris continued his progress towards the championship losing the victory to Max Verstappen

• Oscar Piastri's difficult performance streak continued as his championship chances diminish

• A excellent victory for Verstappen to maintain him in the title fight

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, following a tough qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton securing a single point for tenth place after beginning at the rear

From the beginning, Lando Norris was true to his statement that he was "not present to avoid risks" as he fought hard to protect his lead from starting first from Max Verstappen

But following an aggressive cut in front of the Red Bull driver to head off the Dutchman's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking zone and ran deep into the corner

This enabled Max Verstappen to drive past into the first place while the British driver also second place to George Russell

Through two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, including at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen slowly established dominance on the race

George Russell undertook an early tire change for the more durable compound, but Norris and Max Verstappen remained on track

Norris stopped five circuits after the Mercedes and Verstappen 10

Verstappen was could return still in the first place, George Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull car even with his newer rubber

Lando Norris rejoined behind Russell from his stop but following a few cautious laps to let his tyres to warm up, quickly closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes and overtook into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

The British driver asked his race engineer how to manage the rest of his race, essentially questioning whether he should accept second place or attack

He was told to "go and get Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was easily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the margin increased significantly as the McLaren started to suffer a mechanical problem which has thus far remained unidentified

Even with dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was able to defend against George Russell because of the size of the lead he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the season - only one less than both McLaren teammates - was achieved in emphatic style and keeps him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, although he requires issues for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It remains a big gap, we always try to maximise everything we've have," Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will try to take victory in the event and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm very proud of everyone"

Oscar Piastri started in fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap after being hit by Liam Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of contention by a broken front wing

He followed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Las Vegas Strip but lost out to Charles Leclerc, who he was could repass during the tire change phase

Piastri finished behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who competed nearly the whole event on hard tyres after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five-second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not clearly visible on replays

"It proved to be a frustrating race from essentially start to finish in certain respects," Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would tackle the remaining events, he said: "Simply try to put myself in the best position I can. I clearly require quite a lot of things to go my way at this stage to take the title, but my only option is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to take advantage if something happens"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth place, insufficiently close to gain from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car missing the speed to compete with the leading outfits in the dry, following his heroic performance to start third in the wet

Isack Hadjar secured eighth before the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time champion executed a flying start, up to thirteenth on the opening circuit and continued to advance positions

He became trapped in a DRS train with a bunch of other cars but was could use his electric start to rescue a point after the worst qualifying session of his racing life