Lando Norris Advances Nearer to Title as Max Verstappen Secures Vegas F1 Race Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris stepped nearer to his first championship with second place in the Vegas race following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

Norris currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth after the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points going into the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will secure the title in the desert as long as he does not lose over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

Piastri, so strong in the first half of the championship, has not finished on the podium for six consecutive events

"Verstappen had a good race. I made the mistake early on and was overly aggressive on that first turn," said Norris

"It remains a positive outcome to secure second. I've got to congratulate Max and Red Bull"

Following Qatar, the final race of the season follows in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

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

• Lando Norris maintained his momentum towards the title losing the victory to Verstappen

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

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

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

At the start, Lando Norris was true to his statement that he was "not here to avoid risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his advantage from pole position from Verstappen

However following an aggressive cut in front of Verstappen to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the corner

This allowed Verstappen to drive past into the first place while Norris lost the runner-up spot to Russell

During two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, including at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen gradually established dominance on the race

Russell made an early pit stop for the more durable compound, but Norris and Verstappen stayed out

The McLaren driver stopped five circuits after the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen 10

Verstappen was could return still in the first place, Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres

Norris rejoined behind Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tires to settle, soon reduced his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes driver and overtook into second place on lap 34

Norris asked his race engineer how to run the rest of his race, effectively asking whether he should accept second or attack

He was instructed to "go and get Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily could repel Lando's attacks, and in the closing stages the margin extended substantially as the McLaren started to suffer a mechanical problem which has thus far remained unidentified

Even with losing almost three seconds a lap, Lando Norris was able to defend against George Russell because of the size of the lead he had established while chasing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - only one behind both McLaren teammates - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at least theoretically, although he needs problems for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

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

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

Piastri started in fifth but dropped two places on the first circuit after being hit by Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of the battle by a damaged front wing

He trailed Liam Lawson's teammate 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

The Australian ended up behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on hard tyres following pitting during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five-second time penalty for a start-line violation, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a frustrating race from essentially start to finish in certain respects," Oscar Piastri told race broadcasters

Questioned 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 at this stage to take the title, but all I can do is make myself in the best position to capitalise if circumstances change"

Leclerc hung on in sixth position, not close enough to benefit from Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh at the finish, his Williams missing the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry, following his heroic performance to start third in the wet

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

The seven-time title winner made a flying start, rising to 13th on the first lap and proceeded to advance positions

He became trapped in a slipstream group with a bunch of additional vehicles but was able to employ his electric start to rescue a championship point following the worst qualifying session of his career