Norris Advances Nearer to Championship as Verstappen Secures Las Vegas Grand Prix Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris moved closer to a maiden championship with second place in the Vegas race following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

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

Norris will claim the title in the Qatar as long as he does not lose more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so impressive in the opening stages of the season, 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 get second. I've got to praise Verstappen and Red Bull"

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

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

• Norris continued his momentum towards the title losing the victory to Max Verstappen

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

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

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

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

However after an aggressive cut in front of the Red Bull driver to head off the Verstappen's challenge on the inside, Norris miscalculated his braking zone and went too deep into the turn

That enabled Max Verstappen to drive past into the first place while the British driver also second place to Russell

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

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

The McLaren driver pitted five laps following the Mercedes and Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was able to rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

Norris returned behind Russell from his pit stop but after a several careful circuits to let his tires to warm up, quickly closed his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

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

He was instructed to "go and get Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was readily able to defend against Lando's attacks, and in the final laps the margin extended substantially as the McLaren began to experience a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Despite dropping nearly three seconds a lap, Norris was able to defend against Russell because of the size of the advantage he had established while pursuing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - just one less than the two McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, although he requires issues for Lando Norris in both remaining races to pass him

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

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

Piastri began in fifth but dropped two positions on the first circuit following being hit by Liam Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of contention by a broken front wing

He trailed Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before passing him on the Las Vegas Strip but lost position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

Piastri finished behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on the durable compound following stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five-second penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not immediately obvious on replays

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

Questioned about how he would approach the final two races, he commented: "Just try to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously require quite a lot of factors to go my way now to take the title, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, not close enough to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car missing the speed to challenge with the top teams in the dry conditions, after his impressive showing to qualify third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time title winner made a strong getaway, up to 13th on the opening circuit and proceeded to advance positions

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was could use his electric start to rescue a point following the poorest qualifying performance of his racing life