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

McLaren's Lando Norris stepped nearer to his first championship with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

Norris currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth after Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton 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 first half of the season, has not finished on the top three for six races

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I erred at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," said Norris

"It remains a positive outcome to get second. I've got to praise Max and his team"

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

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

• Lando Norris continued his progress towards the title losing the victory to Verstappen

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

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

• Recoveries for both Ferrari drivers, after a tough qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a point for 10th after beginning at the rear

At the start, Lando Norris was true to his claim that he was "not here not to take risks" as he fought hard to protect his advantage from pole position from Max Verstappen

However following an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to block the Verstappen's attack on the inside, Norris miscalculated his braking zone and ran deep into the turn

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

Through two VSC periods for some early incidents, featuring at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen gradually stamped his authority on the race

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

The McLaren driver pitted five circuits following the Mercedes and Verstappen ten laps later

The Red Bull driver was could return still in the first place, George Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull even with his newer rubber

Lando Norris returned after George Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to allow his tires to warm up, 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 run the remainder of his event, essentially questioning whether he should settle for second or attack

He was told to "go and get Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was readily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the gap increased significantly as the McLaren car started to suffer a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Even with losing almost three seconds a lap, Norris was able to hold off George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had built while chasing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the season - just one less than the two McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at least theoretically, even if he needs problems for Lando Norris in both remaining races to pass him

"It's still a big gap, we consistently attempt to optimize everything we've got," Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will attempt to win the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Piastri began fifth but dropped two positions on the first circuit after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of contention by a damaged nose section

He followed Liam Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Las Vegas Strip but also position to Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

Piastri finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on the durable compound following stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five second time penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a disappointing event from essentially beginning to end in some ways," Oscar Piastri told race broadcasters

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he said: "Just try to position myself in the best position I can. I obviously need quite a lot of things to favor me now to win, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to take advantage if something happens"

Leclerc held on in sixth place, insufficiently close to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh at the finish, his Williams lacking the pace to compete with the leading outfits in the dry, after his impressive showing to start third in the wet weather

Hadjar took eighth before Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time champion made a strong getaway, rising to thirteenth on the first lap and continued to move forwards

He got stuck in a DRS train with a bunch of other cars but was could employ his strong beginning to salvage a championship point after the worst qualifying performance of his racing life