Lando Norris Moves Nearer to Title as Verstappen Secures Las Vegas F1 Race Victory

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

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

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

The Australian driver, so strong in the opening stages of the season, has failed to finish on the top three for six consecutive events

"Max had a strong performance. I made the mistake early on and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It's still a good result to get second. I've got to congratulate Verstappen and Red Bull"

Following Qatar, the final race of the championship takes place in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

The key stories of among Formula 1's most high-profile races included:

• Norris continued his progress towards the title losing the win to Max Verstappen

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

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

• Fightbacks for both Ferrari drivers, after a tough qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a single point for 10th after starting at the rear

From the beginning, Lando Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not present not to take risks" as he fought hard to protect his lead from starting first from Verstappen

However following an aggressive cut in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Dutchman's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and went too deep into the turn

That allowed Max Verstappen to overtake into the lead while the British driver lost the runner-up spot to George Russell

Through two virtual safety cars for several opening-lap incidents, featuring at the start when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen gradually established dominance on the race

George Russell made an early tire change for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Verstappen remained on track

Norris stopped five circuits following the Mercedes driver and Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was could return still in the first place, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull even with his fresher tyres

Norris returned after George Russell from his stop but following a several careful circuits to allow his tires to warm up, soon closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes and overtook into second place on lap 34

The British driver inquired his engineer how to run the rest of his race, effectively questioning whether he should accept second place or attack

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was easily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the gap extended substantially as the McLaren car began to suffer a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined

Despite losing almost three seconds a lap, Lando Norris was could defend against Russell because of the extent of the lead he had built while chasing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - just one less than the two McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, even if he needs problems for Norris in both remaining races to pass him

"It remains a big gap, we consistently attempt to optimize all we've got," Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will attempt to win the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

Piastri began in fifth but dropped two positions on the first circuit after being hit by Liam Lawson, who was soon eliminated of the battle by a damaged nose section

He trailed Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before overtaking him on the Strip but also out to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the whole event on hard tyres following pitting during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five-second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It was a frustrating event from essentially beginning to end in certain respects," Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would approach the remaining events, he commented: "Simply try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously need quite a lot of things to go my way now to win, but my only option is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to take advantage if something happens"

Leclerc hung on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car lacking the speed to compete with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his heroic showing to start in third in the wet

Isack Hadjar secured eighth place ahead of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time champion made a strong getaway, rising to 13th on the first lap and continued to advance positions

He became trapped in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was could employ his electric start to rescue a point following the poorest qualifying session of his career