Norris Edges Closer to Championship as Max Verstappen Takes Vegas F1 Race Win

McLaren's Lando Norris moved closer to a maiden championship with second place in the Vegas race behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth after the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar this coming weekend

Norris will win the title in the Qatar as long as he does not lose more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so strong in the opening stages of the championship, has not finished on the top three for six races

"Verstappen had a good race. I erred early on and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It's still a positive outcome to secure second. I've got to congratulate Verstappen and his team"

After 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:

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

• Oscar Piastri's challenging performance streak continued as his championship chances diminish

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

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

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

But after an aggressive cut in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the turn

That allowed Max Verstappen to drive past into the first place while the British driver lost second place to Russell

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

George Russell made an early tire change for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Verstappen stayed out

Norris pitted five circuits following the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was could rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull car despite his newer rubber

Norris returned after Russell from his stop but after a several careful circuits to allow his tyres to settle, quickly reduced his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes driver and overtook into runner-up position on lap 34

The British driver asked his race engineer how to manage the remainder of his event, effectively asking whether he should accept second place or attack

He was told to "go and get Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was easily able to defend against Lando's challenges, and in the final laps the gap increased significantly as the McLaren car began to suffer a mechanical problem which has so far not been defined

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

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - just one behind the two McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, although he requires problems for Lando Norris in both remaining races to pass him

"It remains a big gap, we consistently attempt to maximise all we've got," 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 extremely pleased of everyone"

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

He trailed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Strip but also position to Leclerc, who he was could overtake again during the tire change phase

Piastri finished behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the entire race on the durable compound after stopping during the initial VSC, but was given a five second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not clearly visible on replays

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

Questioned about how he would approach the remaining events, he commented: "Simply try to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously require quite a lot of factors to go my way now to win, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to take advantage if something happens"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth position, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car lacking the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his impressive showing to qualify in third in the wet

Hadjar secured eighth before the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time champion executed a flying start, up to 13th on the first lap and proceeded to advance positions

He became trapped in a DRS train with a group of other cars but was could use his electric start to rescue a championship point following the worst qualifying session of his career