Norris Moves Closer to Title as Verstappen Secures Las Vegas F1 Race Win

McLaren's Lando Norris stepped nearer to a maiden championship with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth behind Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points going into the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will secure the title in the desert as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

Piastri, so impressive in the first half of the championship, has failed to finish on the podium for six races

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I made the mistake early on and was too punchy on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It's still a good result to get second. I've got to praise Verstappen and Red Bull"

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

The key stories of one of Formula 1's most high-profile races included:

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

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

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

• Fightbacks for both Ferrari drivers, following a tough qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton securing a single point for 10th after starting at the back

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

But following an forceful move in front of Verstappen to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inner line, Norris misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the turn

This allowed Max Verstappen to overtake into the lead while Norris also second place to Russell

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

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

Norris pitted five circuits after the Mercedes and Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was could return still in the first place, George Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull even with his newer rubber

Lando Norris returned behind Russell from his pit stop but after a several careful circuits to let his tyres to warm up, soon reduced his three-point-three second deficit to the Mercedes driver and swept by into second place on lap 34

The British driver inquired his engineer how to manage the remainder of his event, effectively asking whether he should accept second place or attack

He was told to "go and get Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily able to repel Norris' challenges, and in the closing stages the margin increased significantly as the McLaren car started to experience a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

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

The Red Bull driver's sixth win of the season - just one less than the two McLaren teammates - was achieved in emphatic style and maintains him in title contention, at least mathematically, even if he requires issues for Lando Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It's still a significant margin, we consistently attempt to maximise everything we've have," Verstappen said

"During the coming events we will attempt to win the event and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

Oscar Piastri started fifth but dropped two positions on the first circuit following being clouted by Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of contention by a damaged nose section

He followed Liam Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Strip but also position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the whole event on hard tyres following stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five-second penalty for a start-line violation, which was not immediately obvious on replays

"It proved to be a disappointing event from pretty much beginning to end in certain respects," Oscar Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he commented: "Just try to position myself in the best position I can. I clearly require quite a lot of things to favor me at this stage to take the title, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to take advantage if something happens"

Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to gain from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh at the flag, his Williams missing the pace to challenge with the top teams in the dry, after his heroic performance to start in third in the wet

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

The seven-time champion executed a flying start, rising to thirteenth on the first lap and continued to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was able to use his strong beginning to salvage a point following the worst qualifying session of his racing life