Lando Norris Moves Nearer to Championship as Max Verstappen Takes Las Vegas Grand Prix Victory

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

Norris currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place after Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

Norris will secure the championship 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 failed to finish on the podium for six consecutive events

"Max had a good race. I made the mistake early on and was too punchy on that first turn," said Norris

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

Following Qatar, the last event of the season takes place in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

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

• Lando Norris continued his progress towards the title despite the win to Verstappen

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

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

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

At the start, Norris was true to his claim that he was "not present not to take risks" as he fought hard to defend his advantage from starting first from Verstappen

However after an forceful move in front of Verstappen to head off the Verstappen's attack on the inside, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and went too deep into the corner

This allowed Verstappen to drive past into the first place while Norris lost second place to George Russell

Through two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, featuring at the start when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the race

George Russell made an early pit stop for the more durable compound, but Norris and Verstappen stayed out

Norris pitted five circuits following the Mercedes driver and Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was could rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull despite his newer rubber

Lando Norris returned after Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to allow his tires to settle, soon closed his three-point-three second deficit to the Mercedes driver and overtook into runner-up position on the thirty-fourth lap

The British driver inquired his engineer how to run the remainder of his event, effectively questioning whether he should accept second or attack

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Verstappen was easily able to repel Lando's attacks, and in the final laps the gap increased significantly as the McLaren car began to experience a technical issue which has so far not been defined

Despite losing almost three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was able to hold off George Russell because of the size of the lead he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - only one behind both McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in title contention, at least theoretically, although he requires problems for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It remains a significant margin, we always try to maximise everything we've have," Max Verstappen said

"During the coming events we will attempt to win the event and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Piastri started in fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap following being hit by Liam Lawson, who was soon eliminated of contention by a broken front wing

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

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

"It was a frustrating event from essentially start to finish in certain respects," Oscar Piastri told race broadcasters

Questioned about how he would approach the final two races, he said: "Just try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously need several of things to favor me now to take the title, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to capitalise if something happens"

Leclerc held on in sixth position, not close enough to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh place at the flag, his Williams missing the speed to challenge with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his impressive showing to qualify third in the wet

Hadjar took eighth ahead of Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time champion made a flying start, rising to thirteenth on the first lap and continued to advance positions

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was could employ his electric start to salvage a point following the worst qualifying performance of his career