Norris Moves Nearer to Title as Verstappen Secures Las Vegas Grand Prix Win

McLaren's Lando Norris stepped closer to his first championship with second place in the Vegas race behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver currently heads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points going into the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

Norris will claim the championship in the desert as long as he does not lose more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so strong in the first half of the championship, has not finished on the podium for six races

"Max had a good race. I erred at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," said Norris

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

Following Qatar, the last event of the season follows in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

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

• Lando Norris continued his progress towards the title losing the win to Max Verstappen

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

• A superb win for Max Verstappen to keep him in the title fight

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a single point for tenth place following starting at the back

From the beginning, Norris was true to his claim that he was "not present not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his lead from pole position from Max Verstappen

However after an forceful cut in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inside, Norris misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the turn

That enabled Verstappen to overtake into the lead while Norris also second place to George Russell

Through two virtual safety cars for several opening-lap incidents, including at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly established dominance on the race

Russell undertook an early tire change for the more durable compound, but Lando Norris and Verstappen stayed out

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

The Red Bull driver was able to return still in the lead, George Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull even with his fresher tyres

Lando Norris returned behind Russell from his pit stop but following a few cautious laps to allow his tires to settle, quickly closed his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes driver and overtook into second place on lap 34

Norris inquired 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 quickly became apparent he had no chance. Verstappen was easily able to defend against Lando's challenges, and in the final laps the gap extended substantially as the McLaren car began to suffer a technical issue which has so far not been defined

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

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - only one behind the two McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, even if he needs issues for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It remains a significant margin, we consistently attempt to optimize everything we've have," Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we finish, but I'm very proud of everyone"

Piastri started in fifth but dropped two positions on the first circuit after being clouted by Lawson, who was quickly taken out of the battle by a damaged nose section

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

The Australian finished after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on the durable compound after stopping during the initial VSC, but was awarded 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 beginning to end in certain respects," Oscar Piastri informed race broadcasters

Asked about how he would approach the remaining events, he commented: "Simply try to put myself in the best position I can. I clearly need quite a lot of things to go my way at this stage to take the title, but all I can do is make myself in the best position to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, not close enough to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams missing the speed to compete with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his impressive showing to start in third in the wet weather

Hadjar secured eighth place before the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

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

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was able to employ his strong beginning to salvage a championship point after the worst qualifying session of his career