Lando Norris Advances Closer to Championship as Verstappen Takes Las Vegas F1 Race Victory

McLaren's Lando Norris stepped closer to a maiden world title with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

Norris now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place after Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will secure the title in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

Piastri, so impressive in the opening stages of the season, has not finished on the top three for six consecutive events

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

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

Following Qatar, the last event of the championship follows in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

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

• Norris continued his momentum towards the championship despite the win to Verstappen

• Oscar Piastri's challenging run of form persisted as his championship chances diminish

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

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, following a tough qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a point for tenth place following starting at the back

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

But after an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to head off the Verstappen's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking zone and ran deep into the corner

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

During two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the race

Russell undertook an early pit stop for the more durable compound, but Norris and Max Verstappen remained on track

The McLaren driver stopped five circuits following the Mercedes and Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was could return still in the lead, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

Norris rejoined behind George Russell from his stop but after a several careful circuits to allow his tyres to warm up, quickly reduced his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes driver and swept by into second place on lap 34

The British driver inquired his race engineer how to run the remainder of his race, essentially asking whether he should accept second place or challenge for the lead

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was easily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the gap extended substantially as the McLaren started to suffer a mechanical problem which has so far remained unidentified

Even with losing nearly three seconds a lap, Norris was could hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the season - just one less than both McLaren teammates - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum mathematically, even if he requires issues for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It remains a significant margin, we always try to maximise all we've got," Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will attempt to take victory in the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we end up, but I'm very proud of the entire team"

Piastri started fifth but dropped two places on the first circuit following being hit by Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of the battle by a damaged nose section

He trailed Liam Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Strip but also out to Leclerc, who he was could overtake again during the pit-stop period

The Australian ended up behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on hard tyres following stopping during the initial VSC, but was given a five second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

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

Asked about how he would tackle the final two races, he said: "Just attempt to position myself in the best position I can. I obviously require quite a lot of factors to favor me at this stage to take the title, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to capitalise if something happens"

Leclerc hung on in sixth position, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car missing the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his impressive performance to start in third in the wet weather

Isack Hadjar took eighth place before Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time champion executed a strong getaway, up to 13th on the first lap and proceeded to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a group of additional vehicles but was able to use his electric start to salvage a point following the worst qualifying performance of his racing life