Lando Norris Advances Closer to Title as Verstappen Secures Las Vegas F1 Race Win

The McLaren Lando Norris stepped closer to his first championship with runner-up position in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth after the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points going into the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will win the championship in the Qatar 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 failed to finish on the podium for six races

"Verstappen had a good race. I erred at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that first turn," said Norris

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

After Qatar, the last event of the championship follows in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

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

• Norris maintained his momentum towards the title losing the victory to Verstappen

• Piastri's challenging run of form persisted as his championship chances diminish

• A superb win for Max Verstappen to maintain him in the title fight

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

From the beginning, Lando Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not here to avoid risks" as he fought hard to protect his advantage from starting first from Verstappen

But after an aggressive cut in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Dutchman's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and went too deep into the turn

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

Through two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, featuring at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen gradually established dominance on the event

Russell undertook an early pit stop for the more durable compound, but Norris and Max Verstappen remained on track

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

The Red Bull driver was could rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been failed to catch up on the Red Bull even with his fresher tyres

Norris rejoined after George Russell from his pit stop but after a several careful circuits to let his tyres to warm up, soon closed his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by into runner-up position on the thirty-fourth lap

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

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily could defend against Lando's challenges, and in the closing stages the gap increased significantly as the McLaren began to experience a technical issue which has so far not been defined

Even with losing nearly three seconds a lap, Norris was could hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while chasing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the championship - only one less than the two McLaren drivers - was taken in emphatic style and maintains him in title contention, at least mathematically, even if he needs issues for Norris in the final two events to pass him

"It remains a big gap, we always try to maximise all we've have," Max Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will try to win the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri began fifth but dropped two places on the first circuit following being clouted by Lawson, who was soon eliminated of the battle by a damaged nose section

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

The Australian finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed nearly the whole event on hard tyres after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five-second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It proved to be a disappointing race from essentially beginning to end in some ways," Piastri told race broadcasters

Questioned about how he would tackle the remaining events, he said: "Simply try to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously need quite a lot of factors to favor me at this stage to win, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to take advantage if something happens"

Leclerc held on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh at the finish, his Williams car missing the speed to compete with the top teams in the dry, after his impressive showing to qualify in third in the wet

Isack Hadjar secured eighth before Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time champion made a strong getaway, up to 13th on the first lap and continued to advance positions

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was could employ his strong beginning to rescue a championship point following the poorest qualifying session of his career