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

McLaren's Lando Norris stepped nearer to his first championship with runner-up position in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

Norris currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty 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

The Australian driver, so strong in the opening stages of the championship, 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," said Norris

"It's still a positive outcome to get second. I've got to congratulate Max and Red Bull"

Following Qatar, the last event of the championship follows in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

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

• Lando Norris continued his momentum towards the championship despite the victory to Verstappen

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

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

• Recoveries for both Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for 10th after starting at the rear

At the start, Norris was true to his claim that he was "not present not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his advantage from starting first from Max Verstappen

However after an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to head off the Dutchman's challenge on the inner line, Norris miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the turn

This enabled Max Verstappen to drive past into the lead while the British driver lost second place to Russell

Through two VSC periods for some early incidents, including at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen slowly established dominance on the event

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

The McLaren driver pitted five laps after the Mercedes driver and Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was able to rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull car despite his fresher tyres

Lando Norris rejoined behind Russell from his stop but following a few cautious laps to let his tyres to warm up, soon reduced his three-point-three second deficit to the Mercedes and overtook into runner-up position on the thirty-fourth lap

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

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

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

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the season - just one behind both McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in championship contention, at least mathematically, although he requires problems for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It remains a significant margin, we consistently attempt to maximise all we've have," 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 began fifth but lost two positions on the opening lap following being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon eliminated of the battle by a broken nose section

He trailed Liam Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before passing him on the Strip but also position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the whole event on hard tyres following stopping during the initial VSC, but was given a five-second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It was a frustrating race from pretty much start to finish in certain respects," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he said: "Just attempt to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously require quite a lot of things to go my way now to win, but all I can do is make myself in the best position to take advantage if something happens"

Leclerc hung on in sixth position, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh place at the finish, his Williams lacking the pace to compete with the leading outfits in the dry, after his impressive performance to qualify in third in the wet

Hadjar secured eighth before the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a strong getaway, rising to 13th on the opening circuit and proceeded to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was able to use his electric start to rescue a point following the worst qualifying session of his career