Lando Norris Edges Nearer to Championship as Verstappen Secures Vegas Grand Prix Win

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

Norris now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth after Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton will secure the title in the desert as long as he does not lose more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so impressive in the opening stages of the season, has failed to finish on the top three for six consecutive events

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

"It remains a positive outcome to secure second. I've got to praise Max and his team"

After Qatar, the last event of the championship takes place in Abu Dhabi on 7 December

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

• Lando Norris maintained his momentum towards the title despite the victory to Max Verstappen

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

• A superb victory for Max Verstappen to maintain him in the title fight

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for tenth place after beginning at the rear

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

But after an forceful cut in front of Verstappen to block the Dutchman's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking zone and went too deep into the corner

This allowed Max Verstappen to drive past into the lead while Norris lost the runner-up spot to Russell

During two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen gradually stamped his authority on the event

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

Norris stopped five laps after the Mercedes driver and Verstappen ten laps later

The Red Bull driver was able to rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres

Norris rejoined behind Russell from his stop but following a several careful circuits to let his tyres to warm up, quickly closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

Norris asked his race engineer how to manage the remainder of his race, essentially asking whether he should settle for second place or attack

He was instructed to "go and get Max" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Verstappen was easily able to defend against Norris' challenges, and in the closing stages the gap increased substantially as the McLaren began to suffer a technical issue which has thus far not been defined

Despite losing nearly three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was could defend against Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - just one behind the two McLaren teammates - was taken in emphatic style and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, although he needs problems for Norris in the final two events to pass him

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

"In upcoming weekends we will try to take victory in the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm very proud of everyone"

Oscar Piastri began in fifth but dropped two positions on the first circuit after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of the battle by a broken nose section

He trailed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before passing him on the Las Vegas Strip but lost out to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the tire change phase

Piastri ended up behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the whole event on the durable compound after pitting 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 proved to be a disappointing race from essentially beginning to end in some ways," Oscar Piastri informed race broadcasters

Questioned about how he would tackle the final two races, he said: "Just attempt to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly need quite a lot of factors to favor me now to win, but my only option is make myself in the best position to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth position, insufficiently close to benefit from Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car lacking the pace to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry, following his heroic performance to start third in the wet

Isack Hadjar secured eighth ahead of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time champion executed a flying start, up to 13th on the first lap and proceeded to move forwards

He got stuck in a DRS train with a bunch of other cars but was could use his strong beginning to rescue a point following the worst qualifying performance of his career