Lando Norris Moves Nearer to Title as Verstappen Takes Las Vegas F1 Race Win

McLaren's Lando Norris moved nearer to his first world title with runner-up position in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth after Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points going into the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will win the title in the desert as long as he does not lose 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 erred at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that first turn," said Norris

"It remains a positive outcome to secure second place. I've got to congratulate Verstappen and Red Bull"

Following Qatar, the last event of the championship takes place in Abu Dhabi on 7 December

The key stories of one of Formula 1's most high-profile races were:

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

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

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

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

At the start, Norris was true to his claim that he was "not here to avoid risks" as he fought hard to protect his lead from pole position from Verstappen

But following an forceful move in front of Verstappen to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking zone and went too deep into the corner

This allowed Max Verstappen to drive past into the lead while Norris lost the runner-up spot to George Russell

During two VSC periods for some early incidents, including at the start when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly established dominance on the event

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

Norris stopped five laps after the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen 10

Verstappen was able to return still in the first place, George Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

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

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

He was told to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily could defend against Norris' challenges, and in the final laps the margin increased substantially as the McLaren began to suffer a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined

Despite losing almost three seconds a circuit, Norris was could defend against Russell because of the size of the lead he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth win of the championship - only one less than the two McLaren teammates - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in championship contention, at minimum mathematically, even if he requires problems for Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It remains a big gap, we consistently attempt to optimize all we've have," Verstappen said

"During the coming events we will attempt to take victory in the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

Piastri started fifth but lost two positions on the first circuit following being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon taken out of the battle by a broken front wing

He trailed Liam Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Strip but also out to Charles Leclerc, who he was could overtake again during the pit-stop period

Piastri finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on hard tyres following pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five-second penalty for a starting procedure infringement, which was not immediately obvious on replays

"It proved to be a disappointing event from pretty much start to finish in some ways," Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would tackle the remaining events, he commented: "Simply attempt to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously need quite a lot of things to go my way at this stage to win, but my only option is ensure I'm in the best position to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth position, insufficiently close to gain from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car lacking the speed to compete with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his heroic showing to qualify third in the wet

Hadjar took eighth ahead of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a flying start, up to thirteenth on the opening circuit and continued to advance positions

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was could employ his electric start to rescue a point following the worst qualifying performance of his racing life