Norris Advances Nearer to Championship as Verstappen Claims Vegas Grand Prix Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris stepped nearer to a maiden championship with second place in the Vegas race behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points going into the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

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

Piastri, so impressive in the opening stages of the season, has failed to finish on the top three for six consecutive events

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I made the mistake early on and was too punchy on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It remains a positive outcome to secure second. I've got to praise Verstappen and his team"

After Qatar, the final race of the championship takes place 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 win to Max Verstappen

• Piastri's challenging performance streak continued as his championship chances wane

• A superb victory for Verstappen to maintain him in the championship battle

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a point for 10th after beginning at the rear

From the beginning, Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not here not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his advantage from starting first from Verstappen

But after an aggressive move in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, Norris miscalculated his braking zone and went too deep into the turn

That allowed Max Verstappen to overtake into the lead while Norris lost the runner-up spot to George Russell

During two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, featuring at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made contact with Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly established dominance on the event

George Russell made an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen stayed out

Norris pitted five circuits following the Mercedes and Verstappen 10

Verstappen was able to return still in the first place, George Russell having been failed to catch up on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres

Lando Norris returned after George Russell from his stop but after a several careful circuits to let his tires to settle, soon closed his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by into runner-up position on the thirty-fourth lap

Norris asked his race engineer how to manage the rest of his event, effectively questioning whether he should accept second or attack

He was told to "go and get Max" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Verstappen was readily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the closing stages the margin increased significantly as the McLaren car began to experience a technical issue which has so far remained unidentified

Even with dropping almost three seconds a lap, Norris was able to defend against George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had built while chasing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - just one behind both McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at minimum mathematically, even if he requires problems for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It's still a big gap, we consistently attempt to optimize all we've have," Max Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will try to win the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

Piastri started in fifth but lost two positions on the opening lap after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon eliminated of the battle by a broken nose section

He trailed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before passing him on the Strip but also out to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the pit-stop period

Piastri ended up behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on hard tyres following stopping during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five second time penalty for a starting procedure 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 race broadcasters

Questioned about how he would approach the final two races, he said: "Just attempt to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly need quite a lot of factors to go my way at this stage to win, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to capitalise if circumstances change"

Leclerc held on in sixth position, insufficiently close to gain from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car lacking the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry, after his heroic showing to start third in the wet weather

Hadjar secured eighth place before the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a flying start, rising to 13th on the opening circuit and continued 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 championship point after the poorest qualifying session of his racing life