Norris Edges Closer to Championship as Max Verstappen Secures Las Vegas Grand Prix Win

The McLaren Lando Norris moved closer to his first world title with runner-up position in the Vegas race following the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton will win 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 impressive in the first half of the championship, has failed to finish on the top three for six races

"Max had a good race. I erred early on 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 his team"

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

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

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

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

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

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

From the beginning, Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not present not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to defend his advantage from starting first from Max Verstappen

However after an aggressive move in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the corner

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

During two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, featuring at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen gradually established dominance on the event

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

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

Verstappen was could return still in the first place, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull even with his fresher tyres

Norris rejoined behind Russell from his stop but following a several careful circuits to let his tyres to warm up, quickly closed his three-point-three second deficit to the Mercedes and swept by into runner-up position on the thirty-fourth lap

The British driver inquired his engineer how to manage the rest of his race, effectively asking whether he should settle for second place or attack

He was instructed to "go and get Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was easily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the gap extended significantly as the McLaren began to suffer a mechanical problem which has so far not been defined

Even with losing nearly three seconds a lap, Norris was could defend against George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had established while chasing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - just one behind the two McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, although he requires problems for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

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

"During the coming events we will attempt to win the event and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm very proud of everyone"

Piastri started fifth but lost two positions on the first circuit after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon taken out of the battle by a damaged front wing

He followed Liam 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 ended up behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the entire race on hard tyres after pitting during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five second time penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a frustrating event from pretty much beginning to end in certain respects," Piastri told race broadcasters

Questioned about how he would approach the remaining events, he commented: "Simply try to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly need several of things to favor me at this stage to win, but my only option is make myself in the best position to take advantage if something happens"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams missing the pace to challenge with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his heroic performance to qualify in third in the wet weather

Hadjar took eighth before the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time title winner executed a flying start, up to 13th on the first lap and continued to advance positions

He became trapped in a DRS train with a bunch of other cars but was could use his electric start to rescue a championship point following the worst qualifying performance of his career