Lando Norris Moves Nearer to Title as Max Verstappen Takes Vegas F1 Race Win

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

Norris currently heads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points going into the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton will claim the championship 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 championship, has failed to finish on the podium for six races

"Max had a strong performance. I made the mistake early on and was overly aggressive on that first turn," said Norris

"It's still a positive outcome to get second place. I've got to praise Max and Red Bull"

Following Qatar, the last event of the championship takes place in Abu Dhabi on 7 December

The key stories of among Formula 1's most high-profile races were:

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

• Piastri's difficult run of form persisted as his title hopes wane

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

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

From the beginning, 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 Verstappen

But following an aggressive cut in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inside, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the turn

This allowed Verstappen to overtake into the first place while Norris also the runner-up spot to Russell

During two VSC periods for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen slowly established dominance on the event

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

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

The Red Bull driver was able to rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull even with his newer rubber

Norris rejoined after George Russell from his stop but following a few cautious laps to let his tyres to settle, soon reduced his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes driver and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

The British driver inquired his race engineer how to run the rest of his event, effectively questioning whether he should accept second or attack

He was instructed to "go and get Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Max Verstappen was easily able to defend against Norris' challenges, and in the final laps the gap extended substantially as the McLaren started to experience a mechanical problem which has so far not been defined

Despite dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Norris was able to hold off George Russell because of the extent of the lead he had built while pursuing Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - just one behind the two McLaren teammates - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in championship contention, at least theoretically, even if he requires problems for Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It's still a significant margin, we consistently attempt to maximise everything we've have," Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will try to take victory in the event and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we end up, but I'm very proud of the entire team"

Piastri started fifth but dropped two positions on the first circuit after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of contention by a damaged nose section

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

Piastri ended up behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who competed nearly the entire race on hard tyres following stopping during the initial VSC, but was given a five second penalty for a start-line violation, which was not immediately obvious on replays

"It was a disappointing race from pretty much beginning to end in certain respects," Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would approach the final two races, he said: "Simply try to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly need quite a lot of things to go my way at this stage to win, but my only option is make myself in the ideal situation to capitalise if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams missing the speed to compete with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his impressive showing to qualify in third in the wet weather

Isack Hadjar secured eighth place ahead of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time title winner executed a strong getaway, rising to thirteenth on the opening circuit and proceeded to advance positions

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