Lando Norris Moves Closer to Championship as Max Verstappen Claims Las Vegas Grand Prix Victory

McLaren's Lando Norris moved nearer to his first world title with runner-up position in the Vegas race behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

Norris now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton will win the championship in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender 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 not finished on the top three for six consecutive events

"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 secure second. I've got to congratulate Max and Red Bull"

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

The main developments of one of Formula 1's most prestigious races included:

• Lando Norris maintained his progress towards the title despite the victory to Verstappen

• Piastri's difficult run of form continued as his title hopes wane

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

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

From the beginning, Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not present to avoid risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his lead from starting first from Verstappen

However following an aggressive cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Verstappen's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking point and went too deep into the turn

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

During two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, including at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen slowly established dominance on the event

Russell made an early tire change for the more durable compound, but Lando Norris and Verstappen remained on track

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

The Red Bull driver was able to return still in the lead, Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres

Norris returned behind Russell from his stop but following a several careful circuits to allow his tyres to warm up, quickly closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes driver and overtook into second place on lap 34

The British driver asked his race engineer how to run the rest of his event, essentially questioning whether he should accept second or attack

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Verstappen was readily able to defend against Lando's attacks, and in the closing stages the margin extended substantially as the McLaren car started to suffer a technical issue which has so far not been defined

Even with dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was able to hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while chasing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - just one less than the two McLaren teammates - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at minimum mathematically, even if he needs issues for Lando Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It's still a big gap, we consistently attempt to maximise all we've have," Max Verstappen said

"During the coming events we will try to take victory in the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

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

He trailed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before passing him on the Strip but lost out to Charles Leclerc, who he was could overtake again during the pit-stop period

Piastri finished after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the whole event on the durable compound following pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not clearly visible on replays

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

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he said: "Just try to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously require quite a lot of things to favor me 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 place, insufficiently close to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams missing the pace to challenge with the top teams in the dry conditions, after his heroic performance to qualify in third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time title winner made a flying start, rising to 13th on the opening circuit and continued to advance positions

He got stuck in a DRS train with a group of other cars but was able to employ his strong beginning to salvage a championship point after the worst qualifying session of his career