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

The McLaren Lando Norris stepped nearer to his first world title with runner-up position in the Las Vegas Grand Prix following the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place behind Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

Norris will claim the championship in the desert as long as he doesn't surrender over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

Piastri, so impressive in the first half of the championship, has failed to finish on the top three for six consecutive events

"Verstappen had a good race. 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 Verstappen and his team"

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

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

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

• Piastri's challenging performance streak persisted as his championship chances diminish

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

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

At the start, Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not present to avoid risks" as he fought hard to defend his advantage from starting first from Verstappen

However following an forceful cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Dutchman's attack on the inside, Norris miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the corner

That allowed Verstappen to drive past into the first place while Norris lost the runner-up spot to George Russell

Through two VSC periods for some early incidents, including at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly established dominance on the event

Russell made an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Norris and Verstappen remained on track

The McLaren driver pitted five circuits following the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen 10

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the lead, George Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull even with his newer rubber

Norris returned after Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to allow his tyres to warm up, soon closed his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes driver and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

Norris asked his engineer how to manage the rest of his event, effectively questioning whether he should settle for second place or challenge for the lead

He was told to "go and get Max" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Verstappen was easily could repel Norris' challenges, and in the final laps the gap increased significantly as the McLaren began to experience a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined

Even with dropping almost three seconds a lap, Norris was able to defend against George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had built while pursuing Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the championship - just one less than the two McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in championship contention, at minimum mathematically, even if he needs issues for Norris in both remaining races to pass him

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

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

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

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

The Australian ended up after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the whole event on hard tyres after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five-second penalty for a start-line violation, which was not clearly visible on replays

"It proved to be a disappointing race from essentially start to finish in certain respects," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would tackle the remaining events, he commented: "Just try to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously require quite a lot of things to favor me at this stage to win, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the best position to take advantage if circumstances change"

Leclerc hung on in sixth place, not close enough to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams lacking the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry, after his impressive showing to qualify third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time champion made a flying start, up to thirteenth on the opening circuit and continued to move forwards

He got stuck in a DRS train with a bunch of other cars but was able to employ his strong beginning to salvage a point following the poorest qualifying performance of his career