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Amid the hype around the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lando Norris is keeping a calm demeanor about his prospects of claiming his first drivers' championship.

The British driver currently has a 24-point lead over teammate Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by nearly fifty points, with just up to eighty-three points available across the final three races. However, after pulling off a remarkable recovery from 34 points behind Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix in the summer, Norris is focused on performing with the methodical approach that lifted him to the top of the championship.

"It can easily turn the opposite way again even though I hope it doesn't," he commented. "That's motorsport, as we all know. You can get lucky. Other times you also be unfortunate. No matter what happens. It's not worth getting excited or dwelling on it. I continue to view it as a goal that's quite far away."

The 26-year-old has found his peak performance at a critical moment—after difficulties with the vehicle in the first part of the season—while his teammate has lost the controlled, nearly flawless ease that had for so long made him appear to be a future title winner. Notably, Norris maintained a impressive level of composure throughout, insisting despite challenges—such as his retirement from the Zandvoort race—that he would stick to his gameplan and work each session with the identical relentless focus on specifics. This approach has paid off.

Meanwhile, the team have gone to no little effort to attempt to maintain a fair competition for their pair of racers, and it has on occasion been a rather torturous experience, especially at the Italian Grand Prix when the team directed Piastri to cede second place to his teammate after he had fallen behind because of a slow pit stop. Certain spectators did not take well to what was seen as the team unnecessarily interfering with their competitors.

Norris has claimed victory in the last two races, in Mexico and São Paulo, and was jeered on the winner's rostrum at each, leaving him unmoved. "Once you are leading, many people try to bring you down. They do not want to see you winning. I consider it a positive sign," he said.

"It just amuses me. While standing on the podium in Brazil, I really loved it. The experience was quite satisfying. You finally sense that you are achieving success.

"It doesn't bother me, as long as I come out on top. If I believe I'm doing it the right way, and I think that's the case, so long as I feel like I'm putting hard work into being who I am and those kinds of things, then I am not concerned with external opinions."

Vegas, meanwhile, needs to be mastered, and it is a circuit ideal for the McLaren. It shares similarities with Canada and Azerbaijan: low downforce, chilly conditions, and slippery surfaces. These are the only two circuits this season where the papaya squad have been unable to claim at least one podium place, and the leader was circumspect once more about their chances this weekend. Yet, his task in the short term is straightforward: end the race in ahead of Piastri and the points he requires will follow.

Friday Running Sees Mixed Outcomes for Title Contenders

Charles Leclerc led the leaderboard in FP1 on what was still a dusty and very slippery surface. The Williams racer was runner-up, with the Red Bull star fourth, Norris sixth, and the Australian eighth. In the more indicative night running of second practice, the Briton was quickest ahead of the Silver Arrows of the Italian rookie, with Piastri 14th; however, the session lost nearly the last third of track time to check a reported unsecured drain cover at the penultimate corner.

The issue is treated with caution on a street circuit where, at the first Las Vegas GP held in 2023, a loose manhole struck the Ferrari, severely harming it and causing the practice to be aborted.

Mercedes Announce Ownership Sale

The eight-time constructors' champions have revealed that their team principal the Austrian executive has sold a 15% stake in his holding company, equating to a five percent ownership in the squad, to US tycoon the cybersecurity magnate. Kurtz is the CEO and founder of the digital protection firm CrowdStrike. The team principal will remain as team principal and could earn up to £230 million from the deal, with Mercedes having been appraised at £4.57bn, a new high for an F1 team.