Lando Norris Advances Closer to Title as Max Verstappen Secures Las Vegas F1 Race Win

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

Norris now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth after Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will secure the championship in the Qatar as long as he does not lose more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

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

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

"It's still a positive outcome to secure second place. I've got to praise Max and Red Bull"

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

The main developments of one of Formula 1's most prestigious races included:

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

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

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

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

From the beginning, Lando Norris was true to his claim that he was "not present to avoid risks" as he fought hard to defend his lead from pole position from Max Verstappen

But following an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to block the Dutchman's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking zone and ran deep into the corner

That enabled Verstappen to drive past into the first place while Norris also second place to Russell

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

George Russell made an early tire change for the more durable compound, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen stayed out

Norris pitted five circuits after the Mercedes and Max Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was able to return still in the first place, George Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull car despite his newer rubber

Lando Norris returned behind Russell from his stop but following a several careful circuits to let his tyres to settle, soon closed his three-point-three second deficit to the Mercedes and overtook into second place on lap 34

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

He was told to "go and get Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Max Verstappen was easily could repel Lando's attacks, and in the closing stages the margin increased substantially as the McLaren car began to suffer a mechanical problem which has so far remained unidentified

Even with dropping nearly three seconds a lap, Norris was could defend against George Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while pursuing Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the season - just one behind the two McLaren teammates - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, although he needs issues for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It remains a big gap, we always try to maximise all we've have," Verstappen stated

"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 extremely pleased of the entire team"

Piastri began fifth but lost two positions on the opening lap following being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was quickly taken out of contention by a broken nose section

He followed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps 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 finished after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the whole event on hard tyres after pitting during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five-second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It proved to be a disappointing race from essentially start to finish in certain respects," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would tackle the remaining events, he commented: "Simply try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously need quite a lot of things to favor me at this stage to win, but my only option is ensure I'm in the best position to capitalise if something happens"

Leclerc hung on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh at the finish, his Williams lacking the speed to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, after his heroic performance to start in third in the wet

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

The seven-time champion executed a strong getaway, up to 13th on the opening circuit and continued to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was able to employ his electric start to rescue a championship point after the poorest qualifying performance of his career