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

The McLaren Lando Norris stepped nearer to a maiden championship with second place in the Vegas race following the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth after Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will win the title in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so strong in the opening stages of the season, has failed to finish on the top three for six consecutive events

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I made the mistake at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," said Norris

"It remains a positive outcome to get second place. I've got to praise Max and his team"

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

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

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

• Piastri's difficult performance streak continued as his championship chances wane

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

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, after a tough qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for 10th following starting at the back

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

However after an aggressive move in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Dutchman's challenge on the inside, Norris misjudged his braking zone and went too deep into the corner

That enabled Max Verstappen to overtake into the first place while the British driver lost the runner-up spot to Russell

During two virtual safety cars for several opening-lap incidents, including at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson made contact with Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the event

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

The McLaren driver pitted five laps following the Mercedes and Max Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was could rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been failed to catch up on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

Norris rejoined behind George Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to allow his tyres to settle, quickly closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes driver and overtook into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

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

He was told to "chase down Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was easily able to defend against Lando's attacks, and in the final laps the margin extended significantly as the McLaren car started to suffer a technical issue which has thus far not been defined

Despite losing nearly three seconds a circuit, Norris was able to hold off George Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth win of the season - only one behind both McLaren teammates - was taken in emphatic style and keeps him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, although he requires issues for Norris in the final two events to overtake him

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

"In upcoming weekends we will attempt to win the event and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we end up, but I'm very proud of everyone"

Oscar Piastri started fifth but dropped two places on the opening lap following being hit by Liam Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of the battle by a broken nose section

He followed Liam Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before passing him on the Strip but lost out to Charles Leclerc, who he was could repass during the pit-stop period

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

"It proved to be a disappointing event from essentially beginning to end in certain respects," Piastri informed race broadcasters

Asked about how he would tackle the final two races, he commented: "Just try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly require quite a lot of factors to go my way at this stage to take the title, but my only option is make myself in the ideal situation to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth position, not close enough to benefit from Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car lacking the speed to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry, following his heroic performance to start in third in the wet

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

The seven-time title winner made a strong getaway, up to thirteenth on the opening circuit and continued to advance positions

He became trapped in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was able to use his electric start to salvage a championship point following the worst qualifying performance of his racing life