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

McLaren's Lando Norris stepped nearer to a maiden world title with second place in the Vegas race following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

Norris currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place after the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton will win the title in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender over five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

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

"Max had a strong performance. I made the mistake at the beginning and was too punchy on that first turn," stated Norris

"It's still a good result to get second. I've got to congratulate Max and his team"

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

The main developments of one of Formula 1's most high-profile races were:

• Lando Norris maintained his progress towards the championship despite the win to Max Verstappen

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

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

• Recoveries for both Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a point for tenth place after beginning at the back

From the beginning, Lando Norris was true to his statement that he was "not present not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his advantage from starting first from Max Verstappen

But following an aggressive cut in front of Verstappen to block the Dutchman's challenge on the inside, Norris misjudged his braking point and went too 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 several opening-lap incidents, featuring at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen gradually stamped his authority on the event

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

Norris pitted five circuits following the Mercedes and Max Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was able to rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull car even with his newer rubber

Lando Norris returned after George Russell from his stop but after a several careful circuits to allow his tyres to settle, soon reduced his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and overtook into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

The British driver asked his engineer how to manage the remainder of his race, effectively asking whether he should accept second place or attack

He was told to "chase down Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Max Verstappen was easily able to repel Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the margin increased substantially as the McLaren began to experience a mechanical problem which has so far not been defined

Even with dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Norris was able to hold off George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had established while chasing Verstappen

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

"It's still a big gap, we always try to maximise everything we've got," Max Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm very proud of everyone"

Piastri began in fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap following being hit by Lawson, who was quickly taken out of the battle by a broken front wing

He trailed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Las Vegas Strip but lost position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

The Australian ended up behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on the durable compound after stopping during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five second time penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It was a frustrating event from pretty much beginning to end in some ways," Oscar Piastri informed race broadcasters

Questioned about how he would tackle the final two races, he said: "Just try to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly 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 take advantage if something happens"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth position, not close enough to benefit from Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh at the flag, his Williams car lacking the pace to challenge with the top teams in the dry, following his impressive performance to start in third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time title winner made a strong getaway, rising to 13th on the first lap and proceeded to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was able to use his strong beginning to salvage a championship point after the poorest qualifying performance of his career