Norris Moves Nearer to Title as Verstappen Secures Las Vegas Grand Prix Victory

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

The British driver currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place behind Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will claim the title in the desert as long as he does not lose more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

Piastri, so impressive in the first half of the championship, has not finished on the podium for six races

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

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

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

The main developments of among Formula 1's most high-profile races included:

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

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

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

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

From the beginning, Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not here to avoid risks" as he battled aggressively to defend his advantage from pole position from Verstappen

But after an aggressive move in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Dutchman's challenge on the inner line, Norris misjudged his braking point and went too deep into the turn

This allowed Max Verstappen to drive past into the lead while the British driver lost second place to George Russell

Through two VSC periods for some early incidents, featuring at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen gradually stamped his authority on the race

Russell undertook an early tire change for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen remained on track

Norris stopped five laps following the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen ten laps later

Verstappen was could return still in the lead, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull car despite his fresher tyres

Norris returned behind Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tires to settle, soon reduced his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes and swept by into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

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

He was told to "go and get Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was readily could defend against Lando's attacks, and in the closing stages the gap extended substantially as the McLaren car started to suffer a mechanical problem which has so far remained unidentified

Even with dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was able to defend against George Russell because of the extent of the lead he had established while chasing Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the season - only one less than both McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, even if he requires problems for Lando Norris in the final two events to pass him

"It's still a big gap, we always try to optimize everything we've got," Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm very proud of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri began in fifth but lost two places on the opening lap following being hit by Liam Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of contention by a damaged nose section

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

Piastri ended up after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the whole event on hard tyres after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five second penalty for a start-line violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It was a disappointing event from pretty much start to finish in certain respects," Oscar Piastri told race broadcasters

Questioned about how he would tackle the remaining events, he commented: "Simply attempt to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly need quite a lot of things to go my way now to win, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to capitalise if circumstances change"

Leclerc held on in sixth position, not close enough to gain from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car lacking the pace to challenge with the top teams in the dry, following his impressive showing to start third in the wet

Hadjar took eighth before Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a strong getaway, up to thirteenth on the opening circuit and proceeded to move forwards

He got stuck in a DRS train with a group of other cars but was could use his strong beginning to salvage a championship point following the worst qualifying session of his career