Lando Norris Edges Closer to Championship as Max Verstappen Claims Las Vegas Grand Prix Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris moved closer to a maiden championship with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth after Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points going into the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will claim the championship in the Qatar as long as he does not lose over five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so impressive in the first half of the season, has not finished on the top three for six races

"Max had a good race. I made the mistake at the beginning and was too punchy on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It's still a positive outcome to secure second. I've got to congratulate Verstappen and Red Bull"

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

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

• Lando Norris maintained his progress towards the title losing the win to Verstappen

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

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

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for tenth place after starting at the back

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

But after an forceful move in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the corner

This enabled Verstappen to drive past into the first place while the British driver lost the runner-up spot to George Russell

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

Russell made an early tire change for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Verstappen remained on track

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

Verstappen was could rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been failed to catch up on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres

Lando Norris returned behind George Russell from his pit stop but after a several careful circuits to allow his tyres to warm up, soon closed his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and overtook into runner-up position on lap 34

Norris inquired his engineer how to manage the rest of his race, effectively asking whether he should settle for second place or challenge for the lead

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily able to defend against Lando's challenges, and in the closing stages the margin increased substantially as the McLaren began to suffer a technical issue which has thus far not been defined

Despite losing almost three seconds a lap, Norris was able to defend against George Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while pursuing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - just one behind the two McLaren drivers - was taken in emphatic style and maintains him in championship contention, at least theoretically, although he needs issues for Lando Norris in the final two events to pass him

"It remains a significant margin, we consistently attempt to optimize all we've got," Max Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will try to take victory in the event and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

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

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

The Australian finished after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the whole event on the durable compound following stopping 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 disappointing event from pretty much beginning to end in certain respects," Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would tackle the remaining events, he said: "Just attempt to position myself in the best position I can. I clearly need several of factors to favor me now to take the title, but all I can do is make myself in the best position to capitalise if something happens"

Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh at the finish, his Williams missing the speed to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry, after his heroic showing to qualify third in the wet

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

The seven-time title winner made a flying start, up to thirteenth on the first lap and continued to move forwards

He became trapped in a DRS train with a bunch of other cars but was could use his electric start to salvage a championship point following the poorest qualifying performance of his career