Lando Norris Moves Closer to Championship as Verstappen Secures Vegas F1 Race Victory

McLaren's Lando Norris stepped nearer to a maiden world title with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth behind Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points going into the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton will secure the title in the desert as long as he does not lose more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

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

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

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

After Qatar, the last event of the season 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 title losing the win to Verstappen

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

• A excellent win for Max Verstappen to keep him in the championship battle

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

From the beginning, Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not here not to take risks" as he fought hard to defend his lead from pole position from Max Verstappen

However after an forceful cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Verstappen's challenge on the inner line, Norris miscalculated his braking zone and ran deep into the corner

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

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

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

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

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the first place, George Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull car despite his fresher tyres

Lando Norris rejoined behind George Russell from his pit stop but following a few cautious laps to allow his tires to warm up, soon reduced his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

Norris inquired his race engineer how to run the rest of his event, effectively questioning whether he should settle for second place or challenge for the lead

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Verstappen was readily could defend against Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the margin increased substantially as the McLaren began to experience a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined

Even with losing almost three seconds a lap, Norris was could hold off George Russell because of the size of the lead he had established while chasing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth win of the season - just one less than both McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum mathematically, although he requires problems for Norris in both remaining races to pass him

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

"In upcoming weekends 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 fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap following being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon taken out of contention by a damaged front wing

He followed Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before passing him on the Las Vegas Strip but lost out to Leclerc, who he was could overtake again during the pit-stop period

Piastri ended up after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on the durable compound following pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a disappointing event from essentially beginning to end in some ways," Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would tackle the final two races, he commented: "Just try to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously require several of factors to go my way at this stage to win, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to take advantage if something happens"

Leclerc held on in sixth place, insufficiently close to benefit from Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh at the flag, his Williams car missing the speed to compete with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his impressive showing to start in third in the wet

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

The seven-time title winner made a strong getaway, up to 13th on the opening circuit and continued to move forwards

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