Lando Norris Moves Nearer to Championship as Verstappen Claims Vegas F1 Race Victory

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

Norris now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place after the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will win the title 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 first half of the championship, has failed to finish on the top three for six races

"Verstappen had a good race. I made the mistake at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that first turn," stated Norris

"It's still a positive outcome to get second. I've got to praise Verstappen and Red Bull"

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

The key stories of among Formula 1's most high-profile races included:

• Norris maintained his progress towards the championship despite the win to Max Verstappen

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

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

• Fightbacks for both Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a single point for 10th following beginning at the back

At the start, 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 Verstappen

But following an aggressive move in front of the Red Bull driver to head off the Verstappen's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the turn

This enabled Verstappen to drive past into the lead while Norris lost second place to George Russell

Through two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the start when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen slowly established dominance on the race

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

Norris stopped five laps following the Mercedes and Max Verstappen ten laps later

The Red Bull driver was able to rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres

Lando Norris returned behind George 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 and swept by into second place on lap 34

Norris asked his race engineer how to run the remainder of his event, essentially asking whether he should settle for second place or attack

He was told to "go and get Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily able to repel Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the margin increased significantly as the McLaren car began to experience a mechanical problem which has thus far remained unidentified

Even with losing nearly three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was able to defend against Russell because of the size of the lead he had built while pursuing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth win of the season - only one less than both McLaren drivers - was taken in emphatic style and keeps him in championship contention, at least theoretically, although he needs problems for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

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

"In upcoming weekends we will attempt to win the event and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

Oscar Piastri began in fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap following being hit by Lawson, who was quickly taken out of contention by a broken nose section

He trailed Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before overtaking him on the Strip but lost position to Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

The Australian ended up behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on hard tyres after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five second penalty for a start-line violation, which was not clearly visible on replays

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

Asked about how he would tackle the remaining events, he commented: "Simply try to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously need several 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"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth position, insufficiently close to benefit from Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car lacking the pace to compete with the leading outfits in the dry, after his impressive showing to start third in the wet weather

Isack Hadjar secured eighth before 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 continued to advance positions

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of additional vehicles but was able to employ his electric start to rescue a championship point following the worst qualifying session of his career