Norris Advances Nearer to Championship as Max Verstappen Takes Las Vegas F1 Race Win

McLaren's Lando Norris stepped nearer to a maiden championship with runner-up position in the Las Vegas Grand Prix following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place behind Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will win the championship in the desert as long as he doesn't surrender over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

Piastri, so impressive in the opening stages of the championship, has failed to finish on the podium for six consecutive events

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I made the mistake early on and was too punchy on that first turn," stated Norris

"It's still a good result to secure second. I've got to praise Max and his team"

After Qatar, the last event of the season follows in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

The key stories of among Formula 1's most prestigious races were:

• Norris maintained his progress towards the championship despite the victory to Verstappen

• Oscar Piastri's challenging performance streak persisted as his title hopes diminish

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

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for tenth place after starting at the back

At the start, Lando Norris was true to his statement that he was "not here not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his lead from starting first from Verstappen

But following an aggressive move in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, Norris misjudged his braking zone and went too deep into the turn

This enabled Max Verstappen to drive past into the lead while the British driver also the runner-up spot to George Russell

During two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, featuring at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the race

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

Norris pitted five circuits following the Mercedes and Max Verstappen ten laps later

The Red Bull driver was able to return still in the lead, Russell having been failed to catch up on the Red Bull car despite his fresher tyres

Norris rejoined after George Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tyres to warm up, soon closed his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes and overtook into second place on lap 34

The British driver inquired his race engineer how to manage the rest of his event, essentially questioning whether he should accept second place or challenge for the lead

He was instructed to "go and get Max" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was readily could defend against Norris' challenges, and in the closing stages the margin extended substantially as the McLaren began to suffer a mechanical problem which has so far remained unidentified

Even with dropping nearly three seconds a lap, Lando Norris was able to defend against Russell because of the size of the lead he had built while chasing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - just one behind both McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum mathematically, although he needs problems for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It remains a big gap, we consistently attempt to maximise everything we've have," Max Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the event and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we finish, but I'm very proud of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri started in fifth but lost two places on the first circuit following being clouted by Lawson, who was soon taken out of contention by a damaged nose section

He followed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before passing him on the Strip but lost out to Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on the durable compound following pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five second time penalty for a start-line violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It was a disappointing race from pretty much start to finish in some ways," Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he commented: "Simply attempt to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously require quite a lot of factors to favor me at this stage to win, but my only option is make myself in the ideal situation to take advantage if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth position, insufficiently close to benefit from Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh place at the flag, his Williams missing the speed to compete with the leading outfits in the dry, after his heroic performance to qualify in third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time champion executed a flying start, rising to thirteenth on the first lap and continued to move forwards

He became trapped in a DRS train with a group of additional vehicles but was able to employ his strong beginning to salvage a championship point after the worst qualifying session of his racing life