Lando Norris Moves Nearer to Title as Verstappen Claims Vegas F1 Race Win

McLaren's Lando Norris stepped closer to his first championship with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

Norris currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth after the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points going into the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will secure the title in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender over 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 consecutive events

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

"It remains a positive outcome to get second place. I've got to praise Verstappen and his team"

After Qatar, the last event of the championship takes place in Abu Dhabi on 7 December

The key stories of among Formula 1's most prestigious races included:

• Norris continued his momentum towards the championship losing the win to Max Verstappen

• Oscar Piastri's challenging performance streak persisted as his championship chances diminish

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

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

From the beginning, Norris was true to his statement that he was "not here not to take risks" as he fought hard to defend his lead from starting first from Max Verstappen

However following an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to head off the Dutchman's attack on the inside, Norris miscalculated his braking zone and went too deep into the turn

That allowed Max Verstappen to overtake into the first place while Norris also second place to George Russell

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

George Russell made an early pit stop for the more durable compound, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen stayed out

Norris pitted five laps after the Mercedes and Max Verstappen ten laps later

The Red Bull driver was able to rejoin still in the first place, George Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull even with his fresher tyres

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

Norris asked his engineer how to manage the rest of his race, essentially questioning whether he should accept second place or attack

He was told to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was easily could defend against Lando's attacks, and in the closing stages the margin extended significantly as the McLaren car started to experience a technical issue which has thus far not been defined

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

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - just one behind both McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in championship contention, at least mathematically, even if he requires problems for Norris in both remaining races to pass him

"It's still a significant margin, we consistently attempt to optimize all we've have," Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will try to take victory in 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 lost two positions on the opening lap following being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon eliminated of the battle by a damaged nose section

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

The Australian ended up after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on hard tyres following stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five second time penalty for a start-line violation, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a frustrating event from essentially beginning to end in some ways," Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would tackle the remaining events, he said: "Simply attempt to position myself in the best position I can. I clearly need quite a lot of factors to go my way now to win, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to capitalise if something happens"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth position, not close enough to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh at the finish, his Williams car missing the speed to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, following his impressive showing to qualify in third in the wet weather

Isack Hadjar secured eighth before 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 use his strong beginning to rescue a point after the poorest qualifying performance of his career