Lando Norris Advances Nearer to Title as Max Verstappen Takes Las Vegas Grand Prix Victory

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

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

The Briton will win the title 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 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 first turn," stated Norris

"It remains a positive outcome to get second. I've got to praise Max and his team"

Following Qatar, the last event of the season follows in Abu Dhabi on 7 December

The main developments of among Formula 1's most high-profile races were:

• Norris continued his progress towards the championship losing the win to Max Verstappen

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

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

• Fightbacks for both Ferrari drivers, following a tough qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a single point for 10th following beginning at the back

At the start, Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not here not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his lead from pole position from Verstappen

But after an forceful cut in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Dutchman's attack on the inside, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the turn

This enabled Verstappen to overtake into the first place while the British driver lost second place to Russell

Through 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 established dominance on the event

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

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

Verstappen was able to return still in the first place, George Russell having been failed to catch up on the Red Bull despite his newer rubber

Lando Norris returned behind George Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tires to warm up, soon closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes and swept by into runner-up position on the thirty-fourth lap

Norris inquired his race engineer how to run the remainder of his event, 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 little opportunity. Max Verstappen was easily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the closing stages the margin increased substantially as the McLaren began to experience a mechanical problem which has thus far remained unidentified

Despite dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was able to hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while chasing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - only one behind both McLaren drivers - was taken in emphatic style and keeps him in championship 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 have," Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the event and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm very proud of everyone"

Piastri began fifth but lost two places on the first circuit following being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon eliminated of contention by a damaged nose section

He followed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before passing him on the Las Vegas Strip but also out to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase

Piastri ended up behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the whole event on hard tyres after stopping during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five-second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not clearly visible on replays

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

Questioned about how he would approach the final two races, he commented: "Just attempt to position myself in the best position I can. I obviously require several of factors to favor me at this stage to win, but my only option is make myself in the best position to take advantage if something happens"

Leclerc held on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh at the finish, his Williams lacking the speed to challenge with the top teams in the dry, after his heroic showing to qualify third in the wet

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

The seven-time title winner made a strong getaway, up to thirteenth on the opening circuit and proceeded to move forwards

He became trapped in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was able to use his strong beginning to rescue a point after the poorest qualifying session of his racing life