Lando Norris Advances Closer to Title as Max Verstappen Takes Las Vegas Grand Prix Win

The McLaren Lando Norris moved nearer to a maiden world title with second place in the Vegas race behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

Norris now leads teammate 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

Norris will win the title in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so impressive in the opening stages of the season, has failed to finish on the podium for six races

"Verstappen had a good race. I made the mistake early on and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," said Norris

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

After Qatar, the last event of the championship follows in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

The key stories of one of Formula 1's most prestigious races included:

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

• Piastri's challenging run of form continued as his championship chances wane

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

• Recoveries for both Ferrari drivers, following a tough qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a point for tenth place following beginning 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 defend his advantage from pole position from Verstappen

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

This enabled Max Verstappen to drive past into the first place while Norris also second place to Russell

During two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, featuring at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly established dominance on the event

George Russell undertook an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen stayed out

The McLaren driver stopped five circuits after the Mercedes and Verstappen ten laps later

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull car despite his fresher tyres

Norris rejoined behind Russell from his pit stop but after a several careful circuits to let his tires to settle, soon reduced his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes driver and overtook into second place on lap 34

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

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

Despite dropping almost three seconds a lap, Norris was could hold off Russell because of the size of the lead he had built while chasing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the season - just one less than both McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, even if he needs problems for Lando Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It remains a significant margin, we always try to maximise all we've have," Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will attempt to take victory in the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri began fifth but lost two places on the first circuit after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon taken out of the battle by a damaged nose section

He trailed Liam Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Strip but also position to Leclerc, who he was could repass during the pit-stop period

Piastri finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on hard tyres following stopping during the initial VSC, but was given a five second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a frustrating event from pretty much start to finish in some ways," Oscar Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the remaining events, he said: "Simply attempt to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously need quite a lot of things to favor me now to win, but my only option 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 Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car lacking the speed to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry, following his heroic showing to qualify in third in the wet weather

Hadjar took eighth place ahead of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time title winner executed a strong getaway, up to 13th on the first lap and continued to advance positions

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was able to use his electric start to salvage a point after the poorest qualifying session of his career