Lando Norris Edges Nearer to Championship as Verstappen Takes Vegas F1 Race Win

McLaren's Lando Norris moved closer to his first world title with runner-up position in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth after the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will secure 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 opening stages of the championship, has not finished on the top three for six consecutive events

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

"It remains a positive outcome to secure second place. I've got to congratulate Verstappen and Red Bull"

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

The main developments of one of Formula 1's most prestigious races included:

• Lando Norris maintained his momentum towards the title losing the victory to Max Verstappen

• Oscar Piastri's challenging run of form continued as his championship chances wane

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

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for 10th after starting at the rear

At the start, Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not here not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his advantage from pole position from Max Verstappen

But following an forceful cut in front of the Red Bull driver to head off the Verstappen's challenge on the inside, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and went too deep into the turn

This allowed Verstappen to overtake into the first place while the British driver also second place to Russell

During two VSC periods for some early incidents, including at the start when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen gradually stamped his authority on the race

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

Norris stopped five laps after the Mercedes and Verstappen ten laps later

Verstappen was able to return still in the lead, George Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull car despite his newer rubber

Lando Norris rejoined behind George Russell from his pit stop but after a several careful circuits to allow his tires to warm up, quickly reduced his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes and swept by into second place on lap 34

The British driver asked his race engineer how to run the rest of his race, effectively questioning whether he should accept second place or challenge for the lead

He was told to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was readily able to repel Lando's challenges, and in the closing stages the margin increased substantially as the McLaren car started to experience a technical issue which has so far not been defined

Even with dropping almost three seconds a lap, Lando Norris was able to defend against Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had established while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - only one less than both McLaren drivers - was achieved in emphatic style and maintains him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, although he needs problems for Norris in the final two events to pass him

"It's still a big gap, we always try to optimize all we've have," Max Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will try to take victory in the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Piastri started in fifth but dropped two places on the first circuit following being hit by Liam Lawson, who was quickly taken out of contention by a broken nose section

He trailed Liam Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before overtaking him on the Strip but also out to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on hard tyres after pitting during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five second time penalty for a start-line violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

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

Asked about how he would tackle the final two races, he commented: "Just try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly require quite a lot of things to go my way now to win, but my only option is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to capitalise if something happens"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth place, not close enough to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams missing the pace to challenge with the top teams in the dry, after his heroic showing to start third in the wet

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

The seven-time title winner executed a strong getaway, up to 13th on the first lap and proceeded to advance positions

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was able to use his electric start to rescue a championship point after the poorest qualifying performance of his racing life