Lando Norris Edges Closer to Title as Max Verstappen Secures Las Vegas F1 Race Victory

McLaren's Lando Norris moved closer to a maiden world title with runner-up position in the Vegas race behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

Norris now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth after Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty points going into the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will secure the championship in the desert as long as he does not lose over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

Piastri, so strong in the first half of the championship, has not finished on the top three for six races

"Verstappen had a good race. I made the mistake at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that first turn," stated Norris

"It's still a good result to secure second place. I've got to congratulate Max and Red Bull"

After 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 were:

• Lando Norris continued his progress towards the championship despite the win to Max Verstappen

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

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

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for 10th after beginning 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 defend his advantage from starting first from Verstappen

But following an aggressive cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Dutchman's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the corner

This enabled Verstappen to drive past into the first place 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 collided with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen slowly established dominance on the event

George Russell undertook an early pit stop for the more durable compound, but Norris and Verstappen remained on track

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

Verstappen was could return still in the lead, George Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull car despite his newer rubber

Lando Norris rejoined behind George Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tyres to warm up, soon reduced his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes and overtook into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

The British driver inquired his race engineer how to run the remainder of his event, effectively asking whether he should settle for second or challenge for the lead

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Verstappen was readily able to repel Norris' attacks, and in the closing stages the margin increased significantly as the McLaren car began to suffer a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Despite dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was able to hold off Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had built while chasing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth win of the championship - just one behind the two McLaren drivers - was taken in emphatic style and keeps him in title contention, at minimum mathematically, even if he needs issues for Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It's still a big gap, we always try to maximise everything we've got," Max Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will try to win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm very proud of the entire team"

Piastri began in fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap following being hit by Lawson, who was quickly taken out of contention by a broken front wing

He trailed Liam Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Las Vegas Strip but lost out to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the tire change phase

Piastri finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on the durable compound following stopping during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It was a frustrating event from essentially 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 position myself in the best position I can. I obviously need several of things to go my way at this stage to take the title, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to take advantage if something happens"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh at the finish, his Williams lacking the pace to compete with the leading outfits in the dry, after his impressive performance to start in third in the wet

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

The seven-time champion made a strong getaway, rising to 13th on the first lap and proceeded to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of additional vehicles but was able to employ his strong beginning to rescue a championship point after the poorest qualifying session of his career