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

The McLaren Lando Norris stepped closer to his first championship with runner-up position in the Vegas race following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver currently heads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points going into the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will secure the title in the desert as long as he does not lose over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so strong in the first half of the championship, has failed to finish on the podium for six consecutive events

"Max had a good race. I erred early on and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," said Norris

"It's still a good result to get second place. I've got to congratulate Max and his team"

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

The key stories of among Formula 1's most high-profile races were:

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

• Piastri's challenging performance streak persisted as his title hopes wane

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

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, following a tough qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a point for 10th 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 fought hard to protect his lead from pole position from Max Verstappen

But after an aggressive cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Verstappen's attack on the inside, Norris miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the turn

This allowed Max Verstappen to drive past into the first place while Norris also second place to Russell

Through two virtual safety cars for several opening-lap incidents, including at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the event

Russell undertook an early tire change for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen remained on track

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

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the first place, George Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull even with his newer rubber

Norris rejoined after Russell from his stop but after a several careful circuits to allow his tires to settle, quickly reduced his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes driver and overtook into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

The British driver asked his engineer how to manage the remainder of his race, essentially asking whether he should settle for second place or challenge for the lead

He was told to "chase down Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Verstappen was easily could repel Norris' challenges, and in the final laps the margin extended significantly as the McLaren began to experience a technical issue which has so far not been defined

Even with dropping nearly three seconds a circuit, Norris was could hold off George Russell because of the size of the lead he had built while chasing Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the championship - only one less than both McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at minimum mathematically, although he requires problems for Lando Norris in the final two events to pass him

"It's still a big gap, we always try to optimize all we've got," Max Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the event and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Piastri began fifth but lost two places on the first circuit following being clouted by Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of the battle by a broken front wing

He trailed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before passing him on the Las Vegas Strip but also out to Leclerc, who he was could repass during the tire change phase

The Australian finished after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on hard tyres after stopping during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five-second penalty for a starting procedure infringement, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a disappointing race from essentially start to finish in certain respects," Oscar Piastri informed race broadcasters

Asked about how he would tackle the remaining events, he commented: "Simply try to position myself in the best position I can. I clearly require quite a lot of things to go my way now to take the title, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to take advantage if circumstances change"

Leclerc held on in sixth position, not close enough to benefit from Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car missing the pace to compete with the leading outfits in the dry, following his heroic performance to start in third in the wet weather

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

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

He became trapped in a DRS train with a bunch of other cars but was able to employ his strong beginning to rescue a championship point following the worst qualifying performance of his career