Lando Norris Edges Nearer to Championship as Verstappen Takes Las Vegas Grand Prix Win

McLaren's Lando Norris stepped closer to his first championship with second place in the Vegas race behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

Norris currently heads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth behind the Mercedes of 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 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 top three for six races

"Max had a strong performance. I made the mistake at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that first turn," stated Norris

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

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

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

• Norris maintained his progress towards the championship despite the win to Verstappen

• Piastri's challenging run of form persisted as his title hopes wane

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

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

From the beginning, Lando Norris was true to his statement that he was "not present to avoid risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his lead from starting first from Verstappen

But after an aggressive move in front of the Red Bull driver to head off the Verstappen's attack on the inside, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the turn

That enabled Max Verstappen to overtake into the lead while the British driver lost second place to George Russell

During two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, featuring at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the event

Russell made an early tire change for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen stayed out

The McLaren driver pitted five laps after the Mercedes and Max Verstappen 10

Verstappen was able to return still in the first place, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull car even with his newer rubber

Lando Norris rejoined after George Russell from his stop but following a several careful circuits to let his tyres to warm up, quickly closed his three-point-three second deficit to the Mercedes and overtook into runner-up position on the thirty-fourth lap

Norris asked his race engineer how to run the rest of his event, effectively asking whether he should accept second or challenge for the lead

He was told to "go and get Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was easily could defend against Norris' challenges, and in the final laps the gap extended significantly as the McLaren car started to experience a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined

Even with dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was could hold off George Russell because of the size of the lead he had built while pursuing Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the championship - just one less than the two McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and keeps him in title contention, at least theoretically, although he requires problems for Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It's still a big gap, we always try to optimize all we've have," Max Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will attempt to win the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

Oscar Piastri started fifth but lost two places on the opening lap after being clouted by Lawson, who was quickly taken out of the battle by a damaged nose section

He trailed Liam Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before passing him on the Strip but lost position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase

The Australian finished behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who competed nearly the whole event on the durable compound following pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five-second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It proved to be a frustrating event from pretty much beginning to end in some ways," Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he said: "Simply try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly require quite a lot of factors to go my way at this stage to take the title, but my only option is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to capitalise if something happens"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh at the finish, his Williams car lacking the pace to compete with the leading outfits in the dry, following his heroic performance to start in third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time champion made a flying start, rising to thirteenth on the opening circuit and proceeded to advance positions

He became trapped in a DRS train with a group of other cars but was able to employ his electric start to salvage a championship point after the poorest qualifying performance of his career