Lando Norris Moves Nearer to Championship as Verstappen Takes Vegas Grand Prix Win

The McLaren Lando Norris stepped nearer to a maiden world title with runner-up position in the Vegas race behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place behind Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will secure the championship in the desert as long as he does not lose over five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

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

"Verstappen had a good race. I erred early on and was too punchy on that first turn," said Norris

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

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

The key stories of among Formula 1's most prestigious races were:

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

• Oscar Piastri's challenging performance streak persisted as his championship chances diminish

• A superb victory for Verstappen to maintain him in the title fight

• Fightbacks for both Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for 10th after beginning at the rear

At the start, Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not here to avoid risks" as he battled aggressively to defend his advantage from starting first from Max Verstappen

But following an forceful move in front of Verstappen to block the Dutchman's challenge on the inside, Norris misjudged his braking zone and ran deep into the corner

That enabled Verstappen to overtake into the first place while the British driver lost the runner-up spot to George Russell

Through two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the event

George Russell made an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Norris and Verstappen remained on track

Norris pitted five laps after the Mercedes and Max Verstappen ten laps later

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the first place, George Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull car despite his newer rubber

Norris rejoined after Russell from his pit stop but following a few cautious laps to let his tires to warm up, soon closed his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by into second place on lap 34

Norris asked his race engineer how to run the rest of his race, effectively questioning whether he should accept second or attack

He was told to "go and get Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was readily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the closing stages the gap extended significantly as the McLaren car started to suffer a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined

Despite dropping nearly three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was could defend against Russell because of the size of the lead he had built while chasing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the season - only one less than the two McLaren teammates - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in championship contention, at least mathematically, although he requires problems for Norris in the final two events to pass him

"It remains a big gap, we always try to optimize everything we've have," Max Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will try to take victory in the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm very proud of everyone"

Piastri started in fifth but dropped two places on the first circuit after being hit by Lawson, who was soon eliminated of the battle by a broken nose section

He trailed Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Las Vegas Strip but also out to Leclerc, who he was could overtake again during the pit-stop period

Piastri finished after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the entire race on hard tyres following pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five-second time penalty for a starting procedure infringement, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It proved to be a disappointing race from pretty much beginning to end in some ways," Oscar Piastri informed race broadcasters

Asked about how he would tackle the remaining events, he said: "Simply attempt to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly require quite a lot of factors to favor me at this stage to take the title, but all I can do is make myself in the best position to take advantage if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams lacking the speed to compete with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his heroic performance to start in third in the wet

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

The seven-time title winner made a strong getaway, up to 13th on the opening circuit and continued to move forwards

He got stuck in a DRS train with a bunch of additional vehicles but was able to employ his strong beginning to salvage a point after the poorest qualifying performance of his racing life