Lando Norris Advances Closer to Title as Max Verstappen Claims Vegas Grand Prix Victory

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

Norris now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place after the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points going into the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will win the title in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so impressive in the opening stages of the championship, has not finished on the podium for six races

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

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

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

The main developments of among Formula 1's most prestigious races were:

• Norris maintained his progress towards the championship losing the victory to Verstappen

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

• A excellent win for Verstappen to maintain him in the championship battle

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for 10th following starting at the rear

At the start, Lando Norris was true to his claim that he was "not here not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to defend his lead from pole position from Verstappen

However after an forceful move in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking zone and ran deep into the turn

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

During two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, featuring at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Max Verstappen gradually stamped his authority on the event

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

The McLaren driver stopped five laps after the Mercedes driver and Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was could return still in the first place, Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull car despite his newer rubber

Lando Norris rejoined after Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to allow his tyres to settle, quickly closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes and overtook into runner-up position on the thirty-fourth lap

The British driver inquired his race engineer how to manage the rest of his race, essentially questioning whether he should accept second place or challenge for the lead

He was told to "go and get Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was readily could repel Norris' challenges, and in the closing stages the gap increased significantly as the McLaren car started to experience a technical issue which has so far not been defined

Even with losing almost three seconds a lap, Norris was could defend against Russell because of the extent of the lead he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - just one behind both McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum mathematically, although he needs problems for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It's still a big gap, we always try to optimize all we've have," Max Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will attempt to take victory in the event and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Piastri started fifth but lost two places on the opening lap after being clouted by Lawson, who was soon eliminated of the battle by a broken nose section

He followed Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Las Vegas Strip but lost position to Leclerc, who he was could overtake again during the tire change phase

Piastri finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the whole event on the durable compound after pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not clearly visible on replays

"It proved to be a frustrating event from essentially start to finish in some ways," Oscar Piastri informed race broadcasters

Questioned about how he would tackle the remaining events, he said: "Just try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously need quite a lot of factors to favor me now to take the title, 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 place, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh place at the finish, his Williams lacking the speed to compete with the leading outfits in the dry, following his heroic showing to qualify third in the wet

Isack Hadjar took eighth place before Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a flying start, rising to 13th 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 employ his electric start to salvage a point after the worst qualifying session of his career