Lando Norris Advances Closer to Championship as Verstappen Takes Las Vegas F1 Race Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris moved nearer to a maiden championship with runner-up position in the Las Vegas Grand Prix following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

Norris now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth after the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton will win the championship in the Qatar 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 first half of the season, has failed to finish on the top three for six consecutive events

"Max had a strong performance. I erred early on and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," said Norris

"It's still a positive outcome to secure second place. I've got to praise Max and his team"

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

The main developments of one of Formula 1's most high-profile races included:

• Lando Norris maintained his momentum towards the title despite the win to Max Verstappen

• Piastri's difficult run of form persisted as his championship chances diminish

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

• Recoveries for both Ferrari drivers, after a tough qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a point for 10th following starting 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 advantage from pole position from Max Verstappen

However following an forceful move in front of Verstappen to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inner line, Norris miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the turn

This allowed Max Verstappen to drive past into the lead while Norris lost second place to George Russell

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

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

Norris pitted five circuits after the Mercedes and Verstappen ten laps later

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

Lando Norris rejoined after George Russell from his pit stop but after a several careful circuits to let his tires to warm up, soon reduced his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes and swept by into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

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

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Verstappen was readily could defend against Norris' challenges, and in the closing stages the gap extended substantially as the McLaren began to suffer 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 chasing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - only one less than the two McLaren teammates - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in championship contention, at least mathematically, although he requires issues for Lando Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It's still a significant margin, we consistently attempt to maximise everything we've got," Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will attempt to take victory in the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm very proud of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri began in fifth but lost two places on the opening lap after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of the battle by a broken front wing

He trailed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before overtaking him on the Las Vegas 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 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 replays

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

Asked about how he would tackle the remaining events, he said: "Simply try to position myself in the best position I can. I clearly require several of factors to go my way now to win, but my only option is make myself in the best position to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car missing the speed to challenge with the top teams in the dry, following his heroic performance to qualify in third in the wet weather

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

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

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a group of additional vehicles but was able to employ his electric start to rescue a point following the worst qualifying session of his career