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

The McLaren Lando Norris moved nearer to his first world title with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place after the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton will win 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 season, has not finished on the podium for six consecutive events

"Max had a strong performance. I made the mistake early on and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It's still a good result to get second place. I've got to praise Verstappen and Red Bull"

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

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

• Lando Norris continued his momentum towards the title despite the victory to Verstappen

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

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

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

At the start, Lando Norris was true to his claim that he was "not here to avoid risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his lead from pole position from Verstappen

However after an forceful move in front of Verstappen to block the Dutchman's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking point and went too deep into the corner

That allowed Verstappen to drive past into the first place while the British driver lost second place to George Russell

Through two VSC periods for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the event

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

The McLaren driver stopped five circuits following the Mercedes driver and Verstappen 10

Verstappen was could rejoin still in the first place, George Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

Norris rejoined behind George Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tires to warm up, quickly closed his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes and overtook into second place on lap 34

Norris inquired his race engineer how to run the remainder of his race, effectively questioning whether he should settle for second place or attack

He was told to "go and get Max" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Verstappen was readily able to repel Lando's attacks, and in the final laps the gap extended substantially as the McLaren began to experience a mechanical problem which has so far not been defined

Even with dropping nearly three seconds a lap, Lando Norris was could hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the championship - only one behind the two McLaren teammates - was taken in dominant fashion and keeps him in title contention, at least mathematically, even if he needs issues for Lando Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It's still a big gap, we consistently attempt to maximise everything we've have," Verstappen said

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

Piastri started fifth but lost two places on the first circuit following being hit by Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of contention by a damaged front wing

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

Piastri finished behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the entire race on hard tyres following stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five second penalty for a starting procedure infringement, which was not clearly visible on replays

"It proved to be a disappointing event from essentially start to finish in some ways," Piastri told race broadcasters

Asked about how he would tackle the final two races, he commented: "Just try to put myself in the best position I can. I clearly require several of things to favor me now to win, but all I can do is make myself in the best position to take advantage if circumstances change"

Leclerc held on in sixth position, not close enough to gain from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car lacking the speed to compete with the leading outfits in the dry, following his heroic showing to start third in the wet

Hadjar secured eighth before Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

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

He became trapped in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was could employ his electric start to rescue a point after the worst qualifying session of his racing life