Lando Norris Moves Nearer to Title as Max Verstappen Takes Las Vegas Grand Prix Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris stepped nearer to a maiden world title with second place in the Vegas race following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver currently heads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

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

The Australian driver, so strong in the first half of the championship, has not finished on the top three for six consecutive events

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I erred at the beginning and was too punchy on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It remains a positive outcome to secure second. I've got to praise Max and Red Bull"

Following Qatar, the final race of the championship takes place in Abu Dhabi on 7 December

The key stories of one of Formula 1's most high-profile races were:

• Lando Norris maintained his progress towards the championship losing the win to Max Verstappen

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

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

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, after a tough qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for tenth place following starting at the rear

At the start, Lando Norris was true to his statement that he was "not here to avoid risks" as he fought hard to protect his lead from pole position from Max Verstappen

But after an aggressive move in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking zone and ran deep into the turn

That enabled Verstappen to overtake into the lead while the British driver lost second place to Russell

During two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, featuring at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Max Verstappen gradually established dominance on the race

George Russell undertook an early tire change for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen remained on track

The McLaren driver stopped five circuits after the Mercedes and Max Verstappen 10

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

Lando Norris returned after George Russell from his stop but after a several careful circuits to let his tires to settle, quickly reduced his three-point-three second deficit to the Mercedes and overtook into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

The British driver asked his engineer how to manage the remainder of his race, essentially asking whether he should settle for second or attack

He was told to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was readily able to repel Lando's attacks, and in the closing stages the margin increased significantly as the McLaren car started to suffer a mechanical problem which has so far not been defined

Despite dropping nearly three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was could defend against Russell because of the extent of the lead he had established while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - just one behind the two McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, even if he needs issues for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It's still a big gap, we consistently attempt to maximise all we've got," Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri began fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap after being hit by Lawson, who was soon taken out of the battle by a broken front wing

He trailed Liam Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before passing him on the Las Vegas Strip but also position to Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

Piastri finished after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on hard tyres after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five-second penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not immediately obvious on replays

"It proved to be a disappointing event from essentially start to finish in certain respects," Piastri informed race broadcasters

Asked about how he would approach the remaining events, he said: "Simply try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously require quite a lot of things to favor me at this stage to take the title, but my only option is make myself in the best position to capitalise if circumstances change"

Leclerc held on in sixth position, not close enough to gain from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh place at the flag, his Williams lacking the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry conditions, after his impressive showing to start in third in the wet

Hadjar took eighth before Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time champion made a flying start, rising to thirteenth on the first lap and continued to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of additional vehicles but was able to employ his electric start to salvage a championship point following the worst qualifying session of his racing life