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

McLaren's Lando Norris stepped nearer to his first championship with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind 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 heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will win the title in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender more than 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 races

"Max had a strong performance. I made the mistake at the beginning and was too punchy on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It remains a good result 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 key stories of one of Formula 1's most prestigious races included:

• Norris maintained his progress towards the title despite the win to Verstappen

• Piastri's challenging run of form persisted as his title hopes diminish

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

• Fightbacks for both Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for tenth place after beginning at the rear

From the beginning, Norris was true to his statement that he was "not present not to take risks" as he fought hard to protect his lead from pole position from Verstappen

However after an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to block the Dutchman's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the turn

This allowed Verstappen to drive past into the first place while the British driver also second place to Russell

Through two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, featuring at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the race

George Russell made an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Norris and Verstappen remained on track

The McLaren driver stopped five laps after the Mercedes and Verstappen ten laps later

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull even with his fresher tyres

Norris rejoined after George Russell from his pit stop but following a several careful circuits to allow his tyres to settle, quickly closed his three-point-three second deficit to the Mercedes and overtook into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

Norris asked his engineer how to manage the remainder of his event, essentially questioning whether he should settle for second or challenge for the lead

He was told to "chase down Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Verstappen was easily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the closing stages the margin increased significantly as the McLaren car started to suffer a technical issue which has thus far not been defined

Even with dropping nearly three seconds a circuit, Norris was could defend against Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had established while chasing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - just one less than both McLaren teammates - was achieved in emphatic style and maintains him in title contention, at least theoretically, although he requires issues for Lando Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It remains a significant margin, we always try to optimize all we've have," Verstappen stated

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

Oscar Piastri started fifth but lost two positions on the opening lap after being hit by Liam Lawson, who was quickly taken out of contention by a broken front wing

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

Piastri ended up after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed nearly the whole event on hard tyres following stopping during the initial VSC, but was given a five second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

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

Asked about how he would approach the remaining events, he said: "Simply attempt to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously need quite a lot of things to favor me now to take the title, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to capitalise if something happens"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth place, insufficiently close to benefit from Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh place at the flag, his Williams missing the speed to compete with the leading outfits in the dry, following his heroic performance to start third in the wet

Isack Hadjar secured eighth ahead of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time champion executed a flying start, up to thirteenth on the first lap and continued to advance positions

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of additional vehicles but was able to use his strong beginning to rescue a point following the worst qualifying performance of his racing life