Norris Moves Closer to Championship as Verstappen Secures Vegas F1 Race Win

McLaren's Lando Norris moved nearer to a maiden world title with runner-up position in the Las Vegas Grand Prix following the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

Norris now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place behind Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will win the title in the desert as long as he does not lose over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so impressive in the opening stages of the season, has not finished 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 positive outcome to secure second place. I've got to congratulate Max and Red Bull"

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

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

• Lando Norris continued his progress towards the championship losing the victory to Verstappen

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

• A excellent victory for Verstappen to maintain him in the title fight

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a point for tenth place after starting at the rear

At the start, Norris was true to his claim that he was "not here not to take risks" as he fought hard to defend his advantage from starting first from Verstappen

However after an forceful move in front of Verstappen to head off the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking point and went too deep into the turn

That enabled Verstappen to overtake into the lead while the British driver lost second place to Russell

During two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, including at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly established dominance on the race

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

The McLaren driver stopped five circuits following 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 close in on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

Lando Norris returned after Russell from his pit stop but following a few cautious laps to let his tyres to warm up, quickly reduced his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

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

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was readily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the gap increased substantially as the McLaren began to experience a technical issue which has so far not been defined

Despite losing almost three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was could hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had established while chasing Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - only one behind both McLaren teammates - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in championship contention, at least theoretically, although he needs problems for Norris in the final two events to pass him

"It remains a big gap, we consistently attempt to optimize everything we've have," Max Verstappen said

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

Oscar Piastri began fifth but dropped two places on the first circuit after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon taken out of contention by a damaged front wing

He trailed Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before overtaking him on the Strip but lost position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

The Australian finished after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on hard tyres after stopping during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not clearly visible on replays

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

Questioned about how he would approach the remaining events, he said: "Simply try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly require quite a lot of things to favor me now to take the title, but all I can do is make myself in the best position to take advantage if something happens"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth position, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car missing the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry, after his impressive performance to qualify third in the wet

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

The seven-time champion made a strong getaway, rising to thirteenth on the opening circuit and continued to move forwards

He became trapped in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was able to use his electric start to salvage a championship point following the poorest qualifying session of his career