Lando Norris Moves Closer to Championship as Max Verstappen Takes Las Vegas Grand Prix Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris moved nearer to a maiden championship with runner-up position in the Vegas race following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

Norris now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place after the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton will secure 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 strong in the opening stages of the championship, has failed to finish on the podium for six races

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I made the mistake early on and was too punchy on that opening corner," said Norris

"It's still a good result to get second place. I've got to praise Max and his team"

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

The key stories of among Formula 1's most prestigious races included:

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

• Oscar Piastri's difficult run of form continued as his championship chances diminish

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

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

From the beginning, Norris was true to his claim that he was "not present not to take risks" as he fought hard to protect his lead from pole position from Verstappen

But following an aggressive move in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Dutchman's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking zone and ran deep into the corner

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

During two virtual safety cars for several opening-lap incidents, featuring at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly established dominance on the race

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

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

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull despite his newer rubber

Norris rejoined behind George Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to allow his tyres to settle, quickly reduced his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

Norris inquired his engineer how to run the rest of his race, essentially questioning whether he should accept second place or attack

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Verstappen was readily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the closing stages the gap increased significantly as the McLaren began to experience a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined

Even with dropping nearly three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was could defend against George Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - only one less than both McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum mathematically, even if he needs issues for Norris in both remaining races to pass him

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

"During the coming events we will attempt to win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri started in fifth but dropped two positions on the first circuit following being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was quickly taken out of the battle by a damaged nose section

He followed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Strip but lost out to Charles Leclerc, who he was could overtake again during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the whole event on the durable compound after stopping during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five-second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It proved to be a frustrating race from essentially beginning to end in certain respects," Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would approach the final two races, he commented: "Just try to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously require quite a lot of factors to favor me at this stage to take the title, but my only option is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to capitalise if circumstances change"

Leclerc hung on in sixth position, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh at the flag, his Williams missing the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry, after his heroic showing to qualify third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time title winner executed a flying start, up to 13th on the first lap and proceeded to advance positions

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of additional vehicles but was able to employ his strong beginning to rescue a championship point after the poorest qualifying session of his racing life