Norris Advances Closer to Title as Max Verstappen Claims Las Vegas F1 Race Win

The McLaren Lando Norris stepped closer to a maiden world title with runner-up position in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

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

The Briton will secure the title in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

Piastri, so strong in the opening stages of the season, has not finished on the top three for six races

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I made the mistake early on and was overly aggressive on that first turn," stated Norris

"It's still a good result to secure second. I've got to congratulate Max and Red Bull"

Following Qatar, the final race of the season takes place in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

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

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

• Oscar Piastri's challenging performance streak continued as his championship chances wane

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

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

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

But following an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to block the Dutchman's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking zone and ran deep into the corner

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

Through two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the event

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

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

The Red Bull driver was could rejoin still in the lead, George Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull car even with his newer rubber

Norris returned behind Russell from his pit stop but following a few cautious laps to let his tires to warm up, quickly closed his three-point-three second deficit to the Mercedes 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 race, essentially questioning 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. Verstappen was readily could repel Lando's attacks, and in the closing stages the gap extended substantially as the McLaren began to suffer a technical issue which has so far not been defined

Even with losing almost three seconds a circuit, Norris was could hold off George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had built while chasing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the season - only one behind the two McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, even if he requires issues for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

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

"During the coming events 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"

Oscar Piastri began in fifth but dropped two places on the opening lap following being hit by Lawson, who was soon eliminated of the battle by a damaged 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 Charles Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the tire change phase

Piastri finished after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the whole event on hard tyres after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five second time penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a frustrating event from essentially beginning to end in some ways," Oscar Piastri told race broadcasters

Asked about how he would tackle the final two races, he commented: "Simply try to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly require quite a lot of factors to favor me at this stage to take the title, but my only option is make myself in the ideal situation to capitalise if circumstances change"

Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car missing the pace to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, following his impressive showing to start in third in the wet

Hadjar secured eighth before Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

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

He became trapped in a DRS train with a group of other cars but was could use his electric start to salvage a point following the poorest qualifying performance of his racing life