Lando Norris Advances Nearer to Championship as Verstappen Claims Las Vegas Grand Prix Win

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

Norris currently heads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place after Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

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

The Australian driver, so impressive in the opening stages of the season, has not finished on the podium for six consecutive events

"Verstappen had a good race. I made the mistake at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It's still a good result to secure second. I've got to congratulate Max and Red Bull"

After Qatar, the last event of the championship follows in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

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

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

• Oscar Piastri's difficult performance streak continued as his title hopes diminish

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

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

At the start, Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not present not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his advantage from starting first from Max Verstappen

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

That allowed Max Verstappen to drive past into the lead while the British driver lost second place to George Russell

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

George Russell made an early tire change for the hard tyres, but Norris and Max Verstappen stayed out

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

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

Lando Norris returned after George Russell from his stop but following a few cautious laps to let his tyres to settle, quickly reduced his three-point-three second deficit to the Mercedes driver and swept by into second place on lap 34

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

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily could repel Lando's attacks, and in the closing stages the gap extended substantially as the McLaren started to suffer a mechanical problem which has so far remained unidentified

Even with dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was could hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while pursuing Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the season - only one behind the two McLaren teammates - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, although he needs problems for Norris in both remaining races to pass him

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

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

Piastri began in fifth but dropped two places on the opening lap following being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon eliminated of contention by a damaged front wing

He trailed Liam Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Las Vegas Strip but lost position to Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

Piastri finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on hard tyres after stopping 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 was a disappointing event from essentially start to finish in certain respects," Piastri informed race broadcasters

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he commented: "Just attempt to position myself in the best position I can. I clearly need several of factors to favor me at this stage to win, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car missing the speed to compete with the top teams in the dry, after his impressive showing to start third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time title winner executed a strong getaway, up to 13th on the opening circuit and continued to advance positions

He got stuck in a DRS train with a group of other cars but was could use his strong beginning to salvage a championship point following the poorest qualifying session of his career