Norris Edges Closer to Title as Verstappen Takes Las Vegas Grand Prix Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris moved nearer to a maiden world title with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

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

Norris will secure the championship in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender over five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so strong in the first half of the championship, has not finished on the top three for six races

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

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

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

The key stories of one of Formula 1's most prestigious races were:

• Norris continued his progress towards the championship despite the victory to Max Verstappen

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

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

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a point for 10th following beginning at the rear

At the start, Lando Norris was true to his claim that he was "not here not to take risks" as he fought hard to protect his advantage from pole position from Verstappen

But after an forceful cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking point and went too deep into the corner

This enabled Verstappen to overtake into the first place while the British driver lost the runner-up spot to Russell

Through two virtual safety cars for several opening-lap incidents, including at the start when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the race

Russell made an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen remained on track

The McLaren driver stopped five circuits after the Mercedes and Max Verstappen 10

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

Norris rejoined behind Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tires to settle, quickly closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes and overtook into runner-up position on lap 34

The British driver asked his engineer how to manage the rest of his race, effectively asking whether he should settle for second place or challenge for the lead

He was told to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was easily could defend against Lando's challenges, and in the final laps the gap increased significantly as the McLaren car began to suffer a technical issue which has so far remained unidentified

Despite losing almost three seconds a lap, Norris was able to hold off George Russell because of the size of the lead he had built while pursuing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - only one less than the two McLaren drivers - was taken in emphatic style and maintains him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, although he needs issues for Norris in the final two events to pass him

"It's still a significant margin, we consistently attempt to maximise all we've have," Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will try to take victory in the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm very proud of the entire team"

Piastri began fifth but dropped two places on the first circuit after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon taken out of the battle by a damaged front wing

He followed Liam Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Strip but lost out to Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed nearly the whole event on hard tyres 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 video reviews

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

Questioned about how he would approach the remaining events, he said: "Just try to position myself in the best position I can. I clearly need quite a lot of factors to go my way now to take the title, but all I can do is make myself in the best position to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth position, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams lacking the pace to challenge with the top teams in the dry, following his heroic showing to qualify in third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time champion made a flying start, rising to thirteenth on the opening circuit and proceeded to advance positions

He got stuck in a DRS train with a bunch of additional vehicles but was could employ his strong beginning to rescue a championship point after the worst qualifying performance of his career