Lando Norris Edges Closer to Title as Max Verstappen Takes Las Vegas F1 Race Victory

McLaren's 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 finished 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 doesn't surrender over five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so strong in the opening stages of the championship, has not finished on the podium for six consecutive events

"Verstappen had a good race. I erred early on and was too punchy on that first turn," stated Norris

"It remains a good result to secure second. I've got to praise Max and his team"

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 maintained his progress towards the title losing the win to Max Verstappen

• Piastri's challenging performance streak persisted as his title hopes wane

• A superb win for Max Verstappen to maintain him in the championship battle

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, following a tough qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton securing a 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 fought hard to defend his lead from starting first from Max Verstappen

But following an forceful move in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Dutchman's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking zone and ran deep into the corner

That enabled Max Verstappen to drive past into the lead while Norris also second place to George Russell

Through two VSC periods for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made contact 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

Norris stopped five laps following the Mercedes and Max Verstappen ten laps later

The Red Bull driver was could rejoin still in the first place, George Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull car despite his newer rubber

Norris rejoined after George Russell from his stop but following a few cautious laps to allow his tyres to settle, soon reduced his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by into runner-up position on the thirty-fourth lap

Norris inquired his engineer how to manage the remainder of his event, essentially questioning whether he should settle for second or challenge for the lead

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was easily could defend against Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the margin extended significantly as the McLaren car started to suffer a technical issue which has thus far not been defined

Even with dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Norris was could hold off Russell because of the extent of the lead 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 emphatic style and keeps him in championship contention, at least mathematically, although he requires issues for Norris in the final two events to overtake him

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

"In upcoming weekends we will attempt to take victory in the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we end up, but I'm very proud of everyone"

Oscar Piastri began fifth but dropped two places on the first circuit after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon eliminated of contention by a broken front wing

He followed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Las Vegas Strip but lost position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase

Piastri ended up behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the whole event on hard tyres after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five-second time penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It proved to be a frustrating event from essentially start to finish in some ways," Piastri informed race broadcasters

Questioned about how he would approach the remaining events, he commented: "Simply attempt to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously need quite a lot of factors to favor me now to take the title, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the best position to capitalise if circumstances change"

Leclerc hung on in sixth position, not close enough to gain from Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car lacking the speed to compete with the top teams in the dry conditions, after his impressive performance to start third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time title winner executed a strong getaway, rising to 13th on the opening circuit and proceeded to move forwards

He became trapped in a DRS train with a group of additional vehicles but was could use his electric start to rescue a point following the poorest qualifying session of his career