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

The McLaren Lando Norris moved closer to his first championship with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth after Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty points going into the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will secure 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 strong in the first half of the season, has not finished on the top three for six races

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

"It remains a positive outcome to secure second. I've got to praise Max and his team"

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

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

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

• Oscar Piastri's challenging performance streak continued as his title hopes diminish

• A superb win for Max Verstappen to maintain him in the title fight

• Fightbacks for both Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for tenth place following beginning at the back

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

But following an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to block the Verstappen's attack on the inside, Norris misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the corner

That allowed Max Verstappen to drive past into the lead while Norris lost second place to George Russell

Through two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, including at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Max 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 Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was able to rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been failed to catch up on the Red Bull even with his newer rubber

Norris returned after George Russell from his stop but after a several careful circuits to let his tyres to warm up, quickly closed his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and overtook into runner-up position on the thirty-fourth lap

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

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily could defend against Lando's attacks, and in the final laps the gap increased significantly as the McLaren car began to suffer a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Even with dropping nearly three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was could defend against George Russell because of the extent of the lead he had established while pursuing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - only one behind both McLaren teammates - was achieved in emphatic style and keeps him in championship contention, at least mathematically, even if he requires problems for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It's still a big gap, we consistently attempt to optimize all we've got," Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will attempt to take victory in the event and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm very proud of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri began in fifth but lost two places on the first circuit following being clouted by Lawson, who was soon taken out of contention by a broken front wing

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

Piastri finished after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the whole event on hard tyres following pitting during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not immediately obvious on replays

"It was a frustrating event from essentially start to finish in certain respects," Oscar Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would tackle the final two races, he said: "Just try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly require quite a lot of things to favor me at this stage to take the title, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the best position to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh at the flag, his Williams car missing the pace to challenge with the top teams in the dry conditions, after his impressive showing to start third in the wet weather

Isack Hadjar took eighth before Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a flying start, up to 13th on the opening circuit and proceeded to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was could use his strong beginning to rescue a point after the worst qualifying session of his racing life