Norris Moves Nearer to Title as Verstappen Secures Vegas Grand Prix Win

McLaren's Lando Norris moved closer to his first world title with second place in the Vegas race following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

Norris now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton will secure the title in the desert as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 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 good race. I erred at the beginning and was too punchy on that opening corner," stated Norris

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

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

The main developments of among Formula 1's most high-profile races included:

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

• Oscar Piastri's difficult performance streak continued as his championship chances wane

• A excellent win for Verstappen to keep him in the championship battle

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for 10th after starting at the back

At the start, Lando Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not present not to take risks" as he fought hard to defend his lead from pole position from Max Verstappen

But after an forceful cut in front of Verstappen to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inside, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking zone and went too deep into the turn

This allowed Max Verstappen to drive past into the lead while Norris also second place to Russell

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

Russell made an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen remained on track

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

The Red Bull driver was could return still in the lead, George Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

Norris returned behind Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tyres to settle, quickly reduced his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes and overtook into second place on lap 34

Norris inquired his race engineer how to manage the remainder of his race, essentially questioning whether he should settle for second place or attack

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily could defend against Lando's attacks, and in the closing stages the gap increased substantially as the McLaren car started to experience a technical issue which has thus far not been defined

Despite losing nearly three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was able to defend against George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had built while chasing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the championship - only one less than the two McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in title contention, at least mathematically, even if he requires issues for Lando Norris in the final two events to pass him

"It's still a significant margin, we always try to optimize everything we've got," Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will try to win 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 started fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap following being hit by Lawson, who was quickly taken out of contention by a damaged front wing

He trailed Liam Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before passing him on the Las Vegas Strip but lost out to Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase

Piastri finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on hard tyres after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five-second penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It proved to be a frustrating race from essentially beginning to end in certain respects," Oscar Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he said: "Simply attempt to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly require quite a lot of factors to favor me at this stage to take the title, but my only option is make myself in the best position to capitalise if something happens"

Leclerc hung on in sixth place, not close enough to benefit from Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh place at the finish, his Williams missing the speed to compete with the leading outfits in the dry, after his heroic showing to start third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time champion made a flying start, rising to thirteenth on the opening circuit and continued to advance positions

He got stuck in a DRS train with a group of additional vehicles but was able to use his electric start to salvage a championship point following the worst qualifying performance of his racing life