Lando Norris Moves Nearer to Championship as Max Verstappen Secures Vegas F1 Race Win

McLaren's Lando Norris moved nearer to his first 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 Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points going into the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

Norris will win the championship in the desert as long as he does not lose over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

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

"Max had a good race. I made the mistake at the beginning and was too punchy on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It remains a good result to get second. I've got to congratulate Verstappen and his team"

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

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

• Lando Norris maintained his momentum towards the title losing the win to Max Verstappen

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

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

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

At the start, Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not here to avoid risks" as he fought hard to defend his advantage from pole position from Max Verstappen

But following an aggressive cut in front of the Red Bull driver to head off the Dutchman's attack on the inner line, Norris misjudged his braking point and went too deep into the corner

This allowed Max Verstappen to overtake into the first place while the British driver also the runner-up spot to George Russell

During two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, featuring at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly established dominance on the race

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

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

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull car despite his fresher tyres

Norris returned after George Russell from his pit stop but following a several careful circuits to let his tyres to warm up, soon reduced his three-point-three second deficit to the Mercedes driver and swept by into runner-up position on the thirty-fourth lap

Norris inquired his engineer how to run the remainder of his race, essentially questioning whether he should settle for second or attack

He was told to "chase down Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Verstappen was easily able to repel Norris' challenges, and in the final laps the gap extended substantially as the McLaren car began to suffer a mechanical problem which has thus far remained unidentified

Despite dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Norris was could defend against George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had built while chasing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth win of the season - only one behind the two McLaren drivers - was taken in emphatic style and keeps him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, although he requires issues for Lando Norris in both remaining races to pass him

"It's still a significant margin, we consistently attempt to optimize all we've got," Max Verstappen said

"During the coming events we will attempt to take victory in the event and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

Oscar Piastri started in fifth but dropped two places on the first circuit following being clouted by Lawson, who was quickly taken out of contention by a broken nose section

He trailed Liam Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before passing him on the Strip but lost position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on the durable compound following stopping during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five-second time penalty for a start-line violation, which was not clearly visible on replays

"It was a frustrating event from pretty much start to finish in some ways," Oscar Piastri told race broadcasters

Asked about how he would approach the remaining events, he commented: "Just attempt to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly require quite a lot of things to go my way now to win, but my only option is make myself in the best position to take advantage if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth position, insufficiently close to benefit from Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car lacking the speed to challenge with the top teams in the dry, following his heroic showing to start in third in the wet

Isack Hadjar took eighth before Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time champion made a flying start, up to 13th on the opening circuit and continued to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was able to employ his strong beginning to rescue a championship point following the poorest qualifying session of his racing life