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

The McLaren Lando Norris moved closer to his first championship with runner-up position in the Vegas race behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver currently heads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points going into the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will win the championship in the desert as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so strong in the opening stages of the season, has failed to finish on the podium for six races

"Max had a good race. I erred at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," said Norris

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

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

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

• Lando Norris maintained his progress towards the title despite the victory to Max Verstappen

• Piastri's difficult run of form persisted as his title hopes wane

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

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, following a tough qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for 10th following starting at the rear

From the beginning, Norris was true to his statement that he was "not here not to take risks" as he fought hard to protect his advantage from pole position from Max Verstappen

But after an forceful move in front of Verstappen to head off the Dutchman's challenge on the inside, Norris miscalculated his braking zone and ran deep into the turn

That enabled Max Verstappen to drive past into the first place while the British driver lost the runner-up spot to George Russell

During two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen gradually stamped his authority on the race

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

Norris stopped five circuits after the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen 10

Verstappen was could return still in the first place, George Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull despite his newer rubber

Norris returned after Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tyres to warm up, soon reduced his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes driver and overtook into second place on lap 34

The British driver inquired his race engineer how to run the rest of his event, essentially asking whether he should accept second place or challenge for the lead

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

Despite losing almost three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was could hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had established while pursuing Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the championship - just one less than both McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum mathematically, even if he requires issues for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It remains a significant margin, we consistently attempt to optimize everything we've have," Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the event and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

Piastri started in fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap following being clouted by Lawson, who was soon eliminated of contention by a broken front wing

He followed Liam Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before overtaking him on the Strip but lost out to Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the pit-stop period

The Australian ended up after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on hard tyres after 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 event from pretty much start to finish in certain respects," Piastri informed race broadcasters

Questioned about how he would tackle the final two races, he said: "Simply try to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously require quite a lot of factors to favor me now to win, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the best position to capitalise if something happens"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car missing the pace to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry, following his impressive performance to qualify in third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time title winner executed a strong getaway, up to thirteenth on the first lap and proceeded to move forwards

He got stuck in a DRS train with a bunch of additional vehicles but was could use his strong beginning to rescue a championship point after the poorest qualifying session of his racing life