Lando Norris Moves Nearer to Title as Max Verstappen Claims Las Vegas Grand Prix Win

The McLaren Lando Norris moved closer to a maiden championship with second place in the Vegas race behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place behind Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar this coming weekend

Norris will win the title in the Qatar as long as he does not lose more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

Piastri, so impressive in the first half of the season, has failed to finish on the top three for six consecutive events

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

"It remains a positive outcome to secure second. I've got to praise Verstappen and his team"

After Qatar, the final race of the season takes place in Abu Dhabi on 7 December

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

• Norris continued his momentum towards the championship losing the win to Max Verstappen

• Oscar Piastri's challenging run of form persisted as his title hopes diminish

• A superb win for Verstappen to keep him in the championship battle

• Fightbacks for both Ferrari drivers, following a tough qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a point for tenth place after starting at the rear

From the beginning, Norris was true to his claim that he was "not here not to take risks" as he fought hard to protect his advantage from starting first from Max Verstappen

But following an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inner line, Norris miscalculated his braking zone and ran deep into the turn

This enabled Max Verstappen to overtake into the first place while Norris lost the runner-up spot to George Russell

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

George Russell made an early pit stop for the more durable compound, but Lando Norris and Verstappen remained on track

The McLaren driver pitted five circuits following the Mercedes driver and Verstappen ten laps later

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres

Lando Norris rejoined after George Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tires to warm up, quickly closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

Norris inquired his engineer how to run the remainder of his event, effectively asking whether he should settle for second or challenge for the lead

He was told to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was readily could defend against Lando's challenges, and in the final laps the gap increased significantly as the McLaren car started to suffer a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined

Despite dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Norris was able to hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had established while chasing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the season - just one behind the two McLaren teammates - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, although he needs problems for Lando Norris in the final two events to pass him

"It remains a big gap, we consistently attempt to maximise all 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 the entire team"

Oscar Piastri started in fifth but lost two positions on the first circuit after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of contention by a damaged front wing

He trailed Liam Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before passing him on the Las Vegas Strip but lost position to Charles Leclerc, who he was could repass during the pit-stop period

Piastri ended up behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the whole event on the durable compound following pitting during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five-second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It proved to be a disappointing event from essentially beginning to end in some ways," Piastri told race broadcasters

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he commented: "Just attempt to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly require quite a lot of things to favor me at this stage to win, but all I can do is make myself in the best position to capitalise if something happens"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car lacking the pace to compete with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, following his heroic performance to qualify in third in the wet weather

Hadjar took eighth ahead of Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a strong getaway, rising to thirteenth on the opening circuit and proceeded to move forwards

He became trapped in a DRS train with a group of other cars but was able to employ his strong beginning to salvage a point following the worst qualifying session of his racing life