Norris Moves Closer to Title as Verstappen Claims Vegas F1 Race Victory

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

The British driver currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth after the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton will claim 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 impressive in the opening stages of the championship, has failed to finish on the top three for six races

"Verstappen had a good race. I erred early on and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," stated Norris

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

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

The main developments of one of Formula 1's most prestigious races were:

• Lando Norris maintained his momentum towards the championship despite the win to Verstappen

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

• A superb victory for Verstappen to keep him in the title fight

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for 10th after starting at the rear

At the start, Lando Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not present to avoid risks" as he fought hard to defend his advantage from starting first from Max Verstappen

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

This enabled Max Verstappen to overtake into the lead while Norris lost the runner-up spot to Russell

During two VSC periods for some early incidents, including at the start when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly established dominance on the race

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

The McLaren driver pitted five laps following the Mercedes and Verstappen ten laps later

Verstappen was able to return still in the lead, George Russell having been failed to catch up on the Red Bull car despite his fresher tyres

Lando Norris returned after George Russell from his stop but following a few cautious laps to allow his tires to warm up, 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 race, effectively questioning whether he should settle for second place or challenge for the lead

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Verstappen was easily could repel Lando's attacks, and in the closing stages the gap extended significantly as the McLaren began to experience a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Even with losing almost three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was able to hold off George Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while chasing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - just one less than both McLaren teammates - was taken in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, even if he needs problems for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

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

"In upcoming weekends we will attempt to take victory in the event and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm very proud of everyone"

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

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

Piastri finished after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on hard tyres following stopping during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It proved to be a disappointing event from essentially beginning to end in some ways," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the remaining events, he said: "Just try to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously require quite a lot of things to go my way at this stage to take the title, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to take advantage if something happens"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams lacking the speed to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, after his impressive showing to start in third in the wet

Hadjar secured eighth place before the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time champion made a strong getaway, rising to 13th on the opening circuit and continued to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was able to employ his electric start to salvage a championship point following the poorest qualifying session of his racing life