Lando Norris Moves Closer to Title as Verstappen Secures Vegas Grand Prix Victory

McLaren's Lando Norris moved nearer to his first 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 finished fourth after Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will win the championship in the Qatar as long as he does not lose over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

Piastri, so impressive in the first half of the season, has not finished on the podium for six races

"Max had a strong performance. I erred early on and was too punchy on that first turn," said Norris

"It remains a good result to get second place. I've got to praise Verstappen and Red Bull"

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

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

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

• Piastri's difficult performance streak persisted as his title hopes diminish

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

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

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 Verstappen

But following an aggressive move in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Dutchman's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking zone and ran deep into the turn

That enabled Max Verstappen to overtake into the first place while the British driver lost the runner-up spot to Russell

During two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Max Verstappen gradually established dominance on the race

Russell undertook an early tire change for the hard tyres, but Norris and Max Verstappen remained on track

Norris pitted five laps following the Mercedes driver and Verstappen 10

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

Norris rejoined behind George Russell from his stop but following a several careful circuits to let his tyres to warm up, soon reduced his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes driver and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

The British driver asked his race engineer how to manage the remainder of his race, effectively 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. Max Verstappen was readily able to defend against Norris' challenges, and in the closing stages the margin increased significantly as the McLaren started to suffer a mechanical problem which has so far remained unidentified

Despite losing nearly three seconds a lap, Norris was could defend against George Russell because of the size of the advantage he had established while chasing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - just one behind both McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, even if he requires problems for Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It's still a significant margin, we always try to maximise everything we've have," Max Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will attempt to win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri started fifth but dropped two positions on the first circuit after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of the battle by a damaged front wing

He followed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before passing him on the Strip but lost position to Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

Piastri ended up after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on hard tyres following pitting during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five-second penalty for a start-line violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

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

Questioned about how he would approach the final two races, he said: "Just try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly need quite a lot of factors to favor me at this stage to take the title, but my only option is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car missing the pace to challenge with the top teams in the dry, after his heroic performance to qualify in third in the wet

Isack Hadjar secured eighth before the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time title winner executed a strong getaway, up to 13th on the first lap and continued to move forwards

He became trapped in a DRS train with a bunch of other cars but was able to use his electric start to rescue a point following the worst qualifying session of his career