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

The McLaren Lando Norris moved closer to a maiden world title with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix following the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place behind Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

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

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

"Max had a strong performance. I made the mistake early on and was overly aggressive on that first turn," stated Norris

"It remains a good result to get second place. I've got to praise Max and Red Bull"

Following Qatar, the final race of the season follows in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

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

• Norris maintained his progress towards the championship losing the victory to Max Verstappen

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

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

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

From the beginning, Lando Norris was true to his claim that he was "not present not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his advantage from starting first from Max Verstappen

However after an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to block the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking zone and ran deep into the turn

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

Through two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen slowly established dominance on the race

George Russell made an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Norris and Max Verstappen stayed out

Norris stopped five circuits after the Mercedes driver and Verstappen 10

Verstappen was could return still in the lead, George Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull car despite his newer rubber

Lando Norris returned after Russell from his stop but following a few cautious laps to let his tires to settle, soon closed his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and overtook into runner-up position on lap 34

The British driver inquired his race engineer how to manage the rest of his event, essentially questioning whether he should accept second or challenge for the lead

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Verstappen was readily could defend against Norris' challenges, and in the final laps the gap extended significantly as the McLaren started to experience a mechanical problem which has so far not been defined

Despite losing nearly three seconds a lap, Lando Norris was could hold off George Russell because of the size of the lead he had built while chasing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - just one less than both McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at least mathematically, although he needs problems for Norris in the final two events to pass him

"It's still a big gap, we consistently attempt to maximise everything we've got," Max Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will attempt to take victory in the event and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri started in fifth but dropped two places on the first circuit after being hit by Liam Lawson, who was quickly taken out of the battle by a broken front wing

He trailed Liam Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before passing him on the Las Vegas Strip but lost out to Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

The Australian finished behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who competed nearly the whole event on the durable compound after stopping during the initial VSC, but was given a five-second penalty for a starting procedure infringement, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

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

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he commented: "Simply try to position myself in the best position I can. I obviously require quite a lot of factors to favor me now to take the title, but my only option is ensure I'm in the best position to take advantage if circumstances change"

Leclerc hung on in sixth position, insufficiently close to benefit from Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh at the finish, his Williams lacking the pace to compete with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, following his heroic showing to start in third in the wet weather

Isack Hadjar secured eighth ahead of Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

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

He got stuck in a DRS train with a bunch of additional vehicles but was able to employ his strong beginning to rescue a point after the worst qualifying performance of his career