Lando Norris Moves Closer to Championship as Verstappen Secures Vegas F1 Race Victory

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

The British driver currently heads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished 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 secure the title in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

Piastri, so strong in the first half of the season, has not finished on the top three for six races

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I erred early on and was overly aggressive on that first turn," stated Norris

"It remains a good result to secure second. I've got to praise Verstappen and Red Bull"

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

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

• Norris continued his progress towards the championship losing the win to Verstappen

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

• A excellent victory for Verstappen to keep him in the championship battle

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

At the start, Norris was true to his statement that he was "not present not to take risks" as he fought hard to defend his advantage from pole position from Verstappen

However after an aggressive cut in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's attack on the inside, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking zone and went too deep into the turn

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

During two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, including at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen gradually established dominance on the event

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

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

The Red Bull driver was able to rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

Lando Norris rejoined after George Russell from his stop but after a several careful circuits to allow his tyres to warm up, quickly closed his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and overtook into second place on lap 34

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

He was told to "go and get Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was easily could defend against Lando's challenges, and in the closing stages the margin increased substantially as the McLaren car started to suffer a mechanical problem which has thus far remained unidentified

Despite dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Norris was able to defend against Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth win of the season - just one behind the two McLaren teammates - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at least theoretically, although he needs problems for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

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

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

Oscar Piastri began fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap following being hit by Lawson, who was soon 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 lost position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the tire change phase

Piastri ended up after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on hard tyres following pitting during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five second penalty for a start-line violation, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a frustrating event from pretty much start to finish in certain respects," Piastri informed race broadcasters

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he said: "Just try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously require quite a lot of things to favor me now to take the title, but my only option is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car missing the pace to challenge with the top teams in the dry, after his impressive showing to qualify third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time champion made a strong getaway, rising to 13th on the opening circuit and proceeded to advance positions

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of additional vehicles but was could use his strong beginning to rescue a championship point following the worst qualifying session of his career