Lando Norris Moves Nearer to Championship as Max Verstappen Takes Vegas Grand Prix Victory

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

Norris now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place after the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will claim the title in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so strong in the first half of the season, has failed to finish on the top three for six races

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

"It remains a good result to get second place. I've got to praise Verstappen and his team"

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

The main developments of among Formula 1's most high-profile races included:

• Norris continued his momentum towards the championship losing the victory to Verstappen

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

• A superb win for Verstappen to keep him in the championship battle

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

At the start, Lando Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not here not to take risks" as he fought hard to defend his advantage from pole position from Verstappen

However after an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to head off the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the corner

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

During two virtual safety cars for several opening-lap incidents, including at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the event

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

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

Verstappen was could return still in the lead, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull car despite his newer rubber

Norris returned behind George Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tyres to settle, quickly reduced his three-point-three second deficit to the Mercedes driver and overtook into second place on lap 34

The British driver asked his engineer how to run the remainder of his race, essentially questioning whether he should settle for second place or challenge for the lead

He was told to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily able to defend against Lando's attacks, and in the closing stages the gap increased substantially as the McLaren began to experience a technical issue which has so far not been defined

Even with losing almost three seconds a lap, Lando Norris was could hold off George Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while pursuing Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - just one behind the two McLaren drivers - was taken in emphatic style and keeps him in title contention, at minimum mathematically, even if he needs issues for Norris in the final two events to pass him

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

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

Piastri began in fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap after being hit by Liam Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of the battle by a damaged nose section

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

The Australian finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on hard tyres after pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five second time penalty for a starting procedure 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 informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked 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 several of factors to favor me at this stage to win, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to take advantage if circumstances change"

Leclerc hung on in sixth position, insufficiently close to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car lacking the pace to compete with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, following his heroic showing to start in third in the wet

Isack Hadjar took eighth place ahead of Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a strong getaway, rising to thirteenth on the first lap and proceeded to move forwards

He became trapped in a DRS train with a bunch of additional vehicles but was able to use his strong beginning to salvage a point following the poorest qualifying performance of his racing life