Norris Edges Closer to Championship as Max Verstappen Secures Vegas F1 Race Victory

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

The British driver now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth after Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty points going into the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

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

Piastri, so impressive in the opening stages of the season, has not finished on the top three for six consecutive events

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

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

Following Qatar, the last event of the championship 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 title losing the victory to Verstappen

• Oscar Piastri's difficult performance streak persisted as his title hopes wane

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

• Fightbacks for both Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a point for 10th following starting at the back

At the start, Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not here not to take risks" as he fought hard to protect his advantage from starting first from Verstappen

However after an forceful move in front of the Red Bull driver to head off the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the corner

That allowed Max Verstappen to drive past into the lead while Norris lost the runner-up spot to Russell

During two VSC periods for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Piastri, Verstappen gradually stamped his authority on the race

George Russell made an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Norris and Max Verstappen remained on track

Norris pitted five laps following the Mercedes and Max Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was could rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres

Lando Norris rejoined after George Russell from his stop but after a several careful circuits to allow his tyres to settle, quickly reduced his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and overtook into second place on lap 34

Norris asked his race engineer how to run the rest of his event, essentially questioning whether he should accept second or challenge for the lead

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was readily could repel Lando's attacks, and in the final laps the gap increased substantially as the McLaren car began to experience a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined

Despite losing nearly three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was could defend against Russell because of the size 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, although he needs problems for Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It remains a significant margin, we consistently attempt to maximise everything we've got," Max Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will try to win the event and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

Oscar Piastri began in fifth but dropped two positions on the first circuit after being clouted by Lawson, who was soon taken out of the battle by a broken front wing

He trailed Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before overtaking him on the Strip but also position to Charles Leclerc, who he was could overtake again during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on hard tyres after stopping during the initial VSC, but was given a five second time penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It was a disappointing race from pretty much beginning to end in some ways," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would approach the remaining events, he said: "Just attempt to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously need quite a lot of things to go my way now to take the title, but my only option is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth position, not close enough to gain from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh place at the flag, his Williams lacking the speed to challenge with the top teams in the dry, after his impressive showing to qualify in third in the wet

Hadjar secured eighth place before 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 DRS train with a group of other cars but was able to use his strong beginning to salvage a point after the poorest qualifying session of his racing life