Norris Moves Closer to Championship as Verstappen Claims Vegas F1 Race Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris moved nearer to a maiden world title with runner-up position in the Vegas race behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

Norris currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth after the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will win the championship in the desert as long as he does not lose over five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so strong in the first half of the championship, has failed to finish on the top three for six races

"Max had a good race. I erred at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It remains a good result to secure second. I've got to praise Verstappen and his team"

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

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

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

• Oscar Piastri's challenging run of form persisted as his championship chances wane

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

• Fightbacks for both Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for tenth place after beginning at the rear

From the beginning, Lando Norris was true to his claim that he was "not present not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his lead from starting first from Max Verstappen

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

This enabled Max Verstappen to drive past into the first place while Norris lost the runner-up spot to Russell

During two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen gradually established dominance on the event

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

Norris stopped five circuits after the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen 10

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull car despite his fresher tyres

Lando Norris rejoined behind Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to allow his tires to warm up, quickly reduced his 3.3-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 questioning whether he should settle for second place or attack

He was instructed to "go and get Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was easily could repel Norris' attacks, and in the closing stages the margin increased significantly as the McLaren began to suffer a mechanical problem which has so far not been defined

Despite losing nearly three seconds a lap, Norris was able to defend against Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the season - only one behind the two McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in championship contention, at minimum mathematically, although he needs issues for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It's still a significant margin, we always try to maximise everything we've have," Verstappen said

"During the coming events we will attempt to take victory in the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm very proud of everyone"

Oscar Piastri began in fifth but dropped two places on the first circuit following being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon 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 also position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the whole event on the durable compound following stopping during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five-second penalty for a start-line violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It proved to be a frustrating race from pretty much start to finish in certain respects," Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would tackle the remaining events, he commented: "Simply try to position myself in the best position I can. I obviously need several of factors to favor me now to take the title, but all I can do is make myself in the best position to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth position, not close enough to gain from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh at the finish, his Williams lacking the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry, following his heroic showing to qualify third in the wet weather

Hadjar secured eighth before Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a flying start, up to thirteenth on the first lap and proceeded to move forwards

He became trapped in a slipstream group with a bunch of additional vehicles but was could use his electric start to rescue a point following the worst qualifying performance of his career