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

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

The British driver now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate 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

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

"Max had a strong performance. I erred at the beginning and was too punchy on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It's still a positive outcome to get second place. I've got to praise Verstappen and his team"

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

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

• Lando Norris continued his momentum towards the title losing the victory to Verstappen

• Oscar Piastri's challenging run of form continued as his title hopes diminish

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

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, following a tough qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for 10th after starting at the back

At the start, Lando Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not present not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his lead from starting first from Max Verstappen

However after an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to head off the Dutchman's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking point and went too deep into the corner

That enabled Max Verstappen to overtake into the first place while Norris also the runner-up spot to George Russell

Through two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, featuring at the start when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Piastri, Verstappen gradually stamped his authority on the race

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

The McLaren driver pitted five circuits following the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen ten laps later

Verstappen was able to return still in the first place, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull even with his newer rubber

Norris returned after George Russell from his pit stop but after a several careful circuits to let his tires to warm up, soon reduced his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes and overtook into runner-up position on lap 34

Norris inquired his race engineer how to run the rest of his event, essentially asking whether he should accept second place or attack

He was told to "chase down Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Verstappen was readily could repel Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the gap increased substantially as the McLaren car started to suffer a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined

Despite losing nearly three seconds a lap, Norris was able to hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had established while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - only one less than both McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, although he needs problems for Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It remains a big gap, we always try to optimize everything we've have," Max Verstappen said

"During the coming events we will try to win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri started in fifth but lost two positions on the opening lap after being hit by Liam Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of the battle by a broken front wing

He trailed Liam Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before overtaking him on the Strip but also out to Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on hard tyres after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five second time penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not immediately obvious on replays

"It proved to be a disappointing race from essentially start to finish in some ways," 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 several of things to go my way 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 time penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car lacking the pace to compete with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, following his heroic performance to qualify third in the wet weather

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

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

He became trapped in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was could use his strong beginning to salvage a point following the poorest qualifying session of his racing life