Norris Advances Nearer to Championship as Verstappen Claims Las Vegas Grand Prix Victory

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

The British driver now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points going into the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will win the championship in the Qatar as long as he does not lose over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

Piastri, so strong 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 made the mistake early on and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," stated Norris

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

After Qatar, the final race of the championship follows in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

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

• Lando Norris continued his momentum towards the championship despite the win to Max Verstappen

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

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

• Recoveries for both Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for 10th following starting at the back

From the beginning, Lando 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

However after an forceful move in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the turn

This allowed Max Verstappen to drive past into the first place while the British driver lost second place to Russell

Through two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen slowly established dominance on the race

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

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

Verstappen was able to return still in the lead, Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

Norris returned after George Russell from his pit stop but following a several careful circuits to let his tyres to warm up, quickly closed his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

The British driver asked his race engineer how to manage the remainder of his event, effectively questioning whether he should settle for second or attack

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Verstappen was readily could defend against Lando's challenges, and in the closing stages the gap extended substantially as the McLaren car started to experience a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

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

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - only one less than both McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in championship contention, at least theoretically, although he needs 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

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

Piastri started in fifth but dropped two positions on the first circuit after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon taken out of the battle by a broken nose section

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

Piastri ended up after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the whole event on hard tyres following pitting during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five second penalty for a starting procedure infringement, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It was a frustrating race from pretty much beginning to end in certain respects," Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would tackle the remaining events, he said: "Simply try to put myself in the best position I can. I clearly require quite a lot of factors to go my way now to win, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the best position to take advantage if circumstances change"

Leclerc held on in sixth position, insufficiently close to gain from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car lacking the pace to challenge with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his impressive performance to qualify third in the wet

Isack Hadjar secured 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 DRS train with a group of other cars but was able to use his strong beginning to rescue a championship point following the worst qualifying session of his career