Lando Norris Advances Closer to Championship as Max Verstappen Takes Las Vegas Grand Prix Victory

McLaren's Lando Norris moved nearer to his first championship with second place in the Vegas race following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

Norris currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place after Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points going into the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will win the title in the desert as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

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

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I erred at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," said Norris

"It remains a positive outcome to secure second. I've got to congratulate Verstappen and his team"

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

The main developments of one of Formula 1's most prestigious races were:

• Lando Norris maintained his momentum towards the title losing the victory to Verstappen

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

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

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

At the start, Lando Norris was true to his statement that he was "not here to avoid risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his advantage from pole position from Max Verstappen

However following an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to head off the Dutchman's challenge on the inside, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking zone and ran deep into the turn

This allowed Verstappen to drive past into the lead while the British driver also second place to George Russell

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

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

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

The Red Bull driver was able to return still in the lead, George Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres

Norris rejoined after Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tyres to warm up, soon closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes and swept by into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

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

He was told to "go and get Max" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Verstappen was readily able to repel Lando's challenges, and in the final laps the gap extended substantially as the McLaren started to experience a mechanical problem which has so far remained unidentified

Despite losing nearly three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was able to hold off Russell because of the size of the lead he had established while chasing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the season - only one behind both McLaren teammates - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, although he needs issues for Lando Norris in both remaining races to pass him

"It remains a significant margin, we always try to optimize all we've have," Max Verstappen said

"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 the entire team"

Oscar Piastri began in fifth but lost two places on the opening lap following being clouted by Lawson, who was soon taken out of contention by a damaged front wing

He trailed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before overtaking him on the Las Vegas Strip but also out to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

Piastri finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the whole event on hard tyres after pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five second time penalty for a start-line violation, which was not clearly visible on replays

"It was a disappointing race from pretty much start to finish in some ways," Oscar Piastri informed race broadcasters

Questioned about how he would approach the remaining events, he said: "Just attempt to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously require quite a lot of things to go my way now to take the title, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to capitalise if something happens"

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 missing the pace to challenge with the top teams in the dry, after his heroic performance to qualify third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time champion made a flying start, rising to 13th on the first lap and continued to advance positions

He became trapped in a DRS train with a group of additional vehicles but was able to use his electric start to salvage a point following the poorest qualifying session of his racing life