Lando Norris Moves Nearer to Title as Verstappen Takes Vegas F1 Race Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris moved nearer to his first championship with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

The British driver currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place after the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar this coming weekend

Norris will claim the title in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

Piastri, so strong in the opening stages of the championship, has failed to finish on the top three for six races

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

"It's still a positive outcome to get second place. I've got to congratulate Max and his team"

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 were:

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

• Piastri's challenging performance streak persisted as his title hopes wane

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

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for tenth place after beginning at the back

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

But after an forceful cut in front of Verstappen to block the Dutchman's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the corner

That enabled Max Verstappen to overtake into the lead while Norris also the runner-up spot to George Russell

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

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

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

Verstappen was could rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull car even with his newer rubber

Lando Norris returned after Russell from his pit stop but after a several careful circuits to allow his tires to warm up, soon closed his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes driver and overtook into runner-up position on lap 34

Norris inquired his race engineer how to manage the rest of his race, effectively questioning whether he should settle for second or challenge for the lead

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Verstappen was readily able to repel Norris' challenges, and in the final laps the gap extended substantially as the McLaren began to suffer a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Despite losing nearly three seconds a circuit, Norris was able to hold off Russell because of the size of the lead he had built while pursuing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth win of the season - only one less than the two McLaren teammates - was taken in emphatic style and maintains him in championship contention, at least mathematically, although he needs issues for Norris in the final two events to pass him

"It's still a significant margin, we consistently attempt to optimize all we've have," Max Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will attempt to take victory in the event and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we end up, but I'm very proud of the entire team"

Piastri started fifth but lost two places on the first circuit after being hit by Liam Lawson, who was quickly taken out of the battle by a damaged nose section

He followed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Strip but also position to 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 nearly the whole event on the durable compound following pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five-second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It proved to be a frustrating race from pretty much start to finish in some ways," Oscar Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the remaining events, he said: "Just try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly require several of things to go my way now to take the title, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to capitalise if something happens"

Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to benefit from Antonelli's time 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, following his impressive performance to start third in the wet

Isack Hadjar secured eighth before Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a flying start, up to 13th on the opening circuit and continued to advance positions

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was could use his electric start to rescue a point following the poorest qualifying performance of his career