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

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

The British driver now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place behind Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will win the title in the Qatar 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 top three for six races

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

"It remains a positive outcome to get second place. I've got to praise Verstappen and his team"

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

The main developments of among Formula 1's most high-profile races were:

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

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

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

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for 10th following starting at the rear

At the start, Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not here not to take risks" as he fought hard to defend his lead from pole position from Verstappen

But following an aggressive cut in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the turn

That enabled Max Verstappen to drive past into the first place while the British driver also the runner-up spot to Russell

Through two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, including at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Piastri, Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the race

Russell made an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen stayed out

Norris pitted five laps following the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen 10

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

Lando Norris rejoined after Russell from his stop but following a few cautious laps to allow his tires to settle, soon closed his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes and swept by into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

Norris asked his engineer how to run the remainder of his event, essentially questioning whether he should accept second or challenge for the lead

He was told to "go and get Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Verstappen was readily able to defend against Lando's challenges, and in the closing stages the gap increased significantly as the McLaren car started to experience a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Even with losing almost three seconds a lap, Lando Norris was able to hold off George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had built while pursuing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - just one less than the two McLaren teammates - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at minimum mathematically, although he needs issues for Norris in both remaining races to pass him

"It's still a significant margin, we always try to optimize everything we've have," Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will try to win the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Piastri started in fifth but lost two places on the first circuit following being clouted by Lawson, who was soon taken out of contention by a broken nose section

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

Piastri ended up behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the whole event on hard tyres following stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five-second time penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It proved to be a disappointing race from essentially start to finish in some ways," Piastri told race broadcasters

Questioned about how he would tackle the remaining events, he said: "Just attempt to position myself in the best position I can. I clearly need several 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 capitalise if something happens"

Leclerc hung on in sixth position, not close enough to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car missing the speed to challenge with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his impressive performance to qualify third in the wet weather

Isack Hadjar took eighth place before the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time title winner executed a flying start, up to thirteenth on the first lap and proceeded to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was able to employ his strong beginning to salvage a championship point following the poorest qualifying performance of his career