Norris Advances Nearer to Title as Verstappen Takes Vegas Grand Prix Win

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

The British driver currently heads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place after Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

Norris will win the title in the desert 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 first half of the season, has failed to finish on the podium for six consecutive events

"Max had a good race. I erred early on and was overly aggressive on that first turn," said Norris

"It's still a positive outcome to get second place. I've got to congratulate Max and Red Bull"

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

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

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

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

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

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

From the beginning, Lando 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

But following an forceful cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Dutchman's attack on the inner line, Norris miscalculated his braking zone and went too deep into the corner

That allowed Max Verstappen to overtake into the first place while Norris lost second place to Russell

During two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen gradually established dominance on the race

Russell made an early pit stop for the more durable compound, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen remained on track

Norris stopped five circuits after the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen ten laps later

Verstappen was could rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been failed to catch up on the Red Bull car despite his fresher tyres

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

Norris inquired his engineer how to run the rest of his race, essentially asking whether he should settle for second place or attack

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the margin increased substantially as the McLaren car began to experience a technical issue which has so far not been defined

Even with losing almost three seconds a circuit, Norris was could defend against Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had built while pursuing Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the season - just one less than the two McLaren teammates - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in championship contention, at least mathematically, even if he requires issues for Lando Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It remains a significant margin, we always try to optimize all we've have," Max Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we finish, but I'm very proud of everyone"

Oscar Piastri started fifth but lost two places on the first circuit after being clouted by Lawson, who was quickly taken out of contention by a damaged front wing

He trailed Liam Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Strip but lost position to Charles Leclerc, who he was could overtake again during the pit-stop period

The Australian ended up behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on the durable compound after pitting during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five second time penalty for a start-line violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It proved to be a disappointing event from essentially beginning to end in some ways," Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the remaining events, he commented: "Just try to put myself in the best position I can. I clearly need quite a lot of things to favor me now to take the title, but my only option is ensure I'm in the best position to take advantage if something happens"

Leclerc held on in sixth place, insufficiently close to gain from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car missing the speed to compete with the top teams in the dry, following his impressive performance to qualify third in the wet weather

Hadjar secured eighth ahead of Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

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

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of additional vehicles but was could employ his strong beginning to salvage a championship point after the worst qualifying performance of his racing life