Norris Moves Closer to Title as Max Verstappen Secures Vegas F1 Race Win

The McLaren Lando Norris moved nearer to a maiden championship with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place after Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty 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 seventeen to Verstappen

Piastri, so impressive in the opening stages of the championship, has not finished on the top three for six races

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I made the mistake at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It remains a positive outcome to secure second. I've got to congratulate Max and Red Bull"

After Qatar, the final race of the season follows in Abu Dhabi on 7 December

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

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

• Piastri's difficult run of form continued as his title hopes diminish

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

• Fightbacks for both Ferrari drivers, after a tough qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for 10th following starting at the rear

At the start, Lando Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not here not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to defend his advantage from starting first from Verstappen

But after an forceful move in front of the Red Bull driver to head off the Verstappen's attack on the inside, Norris miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the corner

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

During two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, including at the start when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly established dominance on the event

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 laps following the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen ten laps later

The Red Bull driver was could return still in the first place, George Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull car despite his newer rubber

Lando Norris rejoined after Russell from his stop but following a several careful circuits to allow his tires to settle, soon closed his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes and overtook into second place on lap 34

Norris inquired his race engineer how to manage the remainder of his event, effectively questioning whether he should settle for second or attack

He was told to "go and get Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was easily able to defend against Norris' challenges, and in the closing stages the gap increased substantially as the McLaren started to suffer a mechanical problem which has so far remained unidentified

Despite dropping nearly three seconds a circuit, Norris was could hold off George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had established while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - just one behind the two McLaren drivers - was achieved in emphatic style and keeps him in title contention, at minimum mathematically, although he needs issues for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It remains a significant margin, we consistently attempt to maximise everything we've got," Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm very proud of the entire team"

Piastri started fifth but dropped two places on the opening lap following being hit by Liam Lawson, who was soon eliminated of the battle by a broken front wing

He followed Liam Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before passing him on the Las Vegas Strip but also position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

Piastri ended up after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on hard tyres following stopping during the initial VSC, but was given a five-second time penalty for a start-line violation, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It proved to be a frustrating race from pretty much start to finish in some ways," Piastri informed race broadcasters

Asked about how he would tackle the final two races, he said: "Just attempt to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously need quite a lot of things to favor me at this stage to win, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to capitalise if something happens"

Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to benefit from Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car lacking the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry, after his heroic performance to start third in the wet

Hadjar took eighth place ahead of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a flying start, rising to thirteenth on the first lap and proceeded to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was could employ his strong beginning to salvage a point following the poorest qualifying performance of his racing life