Lando Norris Moves Closer to Championship as Max Verstappen Takes Las Vegas F1 Race Win

The McLaren Lando Norris moved closer to his first world title with runner-up position in the Vegas race following the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

Norris now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place behind Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton will claim the title in the Qatar as long as he does not lose over five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

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

"Max had a good race. I made the mistake at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that first turn," stated Norris

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

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

The key stories of one of Formula 1's most high-profile races were:

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

• Oscar Piastri's challenging run of form continued as his title hopes wane

• A superb victory for Verstappen to keep him in the championship battle

• Fightbacks for both Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for tenth place following beginning at the rear

From the beginning, Lando Norris was true to his claim that he was "not here not to take risks" as he fought hard to defend his lead from pole position from Max Verstappen

But after an aggressive cut in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the turn

That allowed Max Verstappen to overtake into the first place while the British driver also the runner-up spot to George Russell

During two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the start when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the race

Russell made an early tire change for the hard tyres, but Norris and Max Verstappen stayed out

The McLaren driver pitted five circuits following the Mercedes driver and Verstappen 10

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull even with his fresher tyres

Norris returned behind George Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tyres to settle, soon closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes and swept by into second place on lap 34

The British driver asked his race engineer how to manage the remainder of his race, effectively asking whether he should accept second place or attack

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Verstappen was easily could repel Norris' attacks, and in the closing stages the gap increased substantially as the McLaren car began to experience a technical issue which has thus far not been defined

Even with dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Norris was able to defend against George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had established while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - only one less than the two McLaren drivers - was taken in emphatic style and maintains him in championship contention, at minimum mathematically, even if he needs issues for Lando Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It remains a significant margin, we consistently attempt to optimize everything we've have," Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the event and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

Piastri started fifth but lost two places on the opening lap following being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon taken out of the battle by a damaged front wing

He followed Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before passing him on the Strip but also out to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

The Australian finished after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on the durable compound after stopping during the initial VSC, but was given a five second time penalty for a starting procedure infringement, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It proved to be a disappointing race from pretty much beginning to end in some ways," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he commented: "Simply attempt to position myself in the best position I can. I obviously require quite a lot of things to go my way now to take the title, but my only option is make myself in the ideal situation to capitalise if something happens"

Leclerc held on in sixth position, insufficiently close to gain from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh at the flag, his Williams missing the speed to challenge with the top teams in the dry conditions, after his impressive showing to start in third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time champion executed a strong getaway, up to 13th on the opening circuit and continued to advance positions

He became trapped in a DRS train with a group of other cars but was able to use his strong beginning to salvage a point after the poorest qualifying performance of his career