Norris Moves Closer to Championship as Max Verstappen Secures Vegas Grand Prix Win

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

The British driver currently heads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place after Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points going into the second-to-last race in Qatar this coming weekend

Norris will secure the title in the desert as long as he does not lose more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so impressive in the first half of the championship, has failed to finish on the podium for six consecutive events

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

"It's still a good result to get second. I've got to praise Max and his team"

After Qatar, the last event of the season takes place in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

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

• Lando Norris maintained his progress towards the championship losing the victory to Verstappen

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

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

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

At the start, Lando Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not present to avoid risks" as he battled aggressively to defend his lead from starting first from Verstappen

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

This allowed Verstappen to overtake into the first place while the British driver also second place to George Russell

During two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, featuring at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen gradually established dominance on the event

George Russell made an early tire change for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Verstappen stayed out

Norris stopped five laps after the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen ten laps later

Verstappen was could rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

Norris rejoined after Russell from his pit stop but following a few cautious laps to allow his tyres to settle, quickly reduced his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

The British driver asked his race engineer how to run the rest of his event, essentially asking whether he should settle for second place or attack

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was readily could defend against Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the gap extended significantly as the McLaren car started to experience a mechanical problem which has so far remained unidentified

Even with dropping almost three seconds a lap, Lando Norris was able to hold off Russell because of the extent of the lead he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the season - only one behind both McLaren teammates - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, although he needs problems for Lando Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It remains a big gap, we always try to maximise everything we've got," Max Verstappen stated

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

Oscar Piastri began in fifth but dropped two positions on the first circuit after 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 opening fifteen circuits before overtaking him on the Strip but lost position to Leclerc, who he was could overtake again during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on the durable compound after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five-second time penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a disappointing event from essentially beginning to end in certain respects," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would tackle the remaining events, he said: "Just try to position myself in the best position I can. I obviously require quite a lot of factors to go my way at this stage to win, but my only option is make myself in the ideal situation to take advantage if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth position, not close enough to gain from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh at the flag, his Williams missing the speed to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry, following his impressive showing to start in third in the wet

Hadjar took eighth ahead of Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time title winner executed a strong getaway, up to 13th on the first lap and proceeded to advance positions

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of additional vehicles but was could employ his strong beginning to salvage a championship point after the poorest qualifying performance of his career