Lando Norris Moves Closer to Championship as Verstappen Claims Vegas Grand Prix Victory

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

The British driver currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place behind Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar this coming 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 seventeen to Verstappen

Piastri, so impressive in the opening stages of the season, has failed to finish on the top three for six races

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I made the mistake early on and was too punchy on that opening corner," said Norris

"It's still a good result to secure second place. I've got to congratulate Verstappen and his team"

After Qatar, the last event of the championship follows in Abu Dhabi on 7 December

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

• Lando Norris maintained his progress towards the title losing the win to Max Verstappen

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

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

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton securing a single point for tenth place after beginning at the back

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

However following an forceful cut in front of the Red Bull driver to head off the Verstappen's challenge on the inside, Norris misjudged his braking point and went too deep into the turn

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

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

George Russell made an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Norris and Max Verstappen stayed out

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

The Red Bull driver was could rejoin still in the first place, George Russell having been failed to catch up on the Red Bull despite his newer rubber

Lando Norris returned behind Russell from his stop but following a few cautious laps to allow his tyres to warm up, soon reduced his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

Norris asked his race engineer how to run the remainder of his race, effectively questioning whether he should settle for second or attack

He was instructed to "go and get Max" but it quickly became apparent 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 started to suffer a mechanical problem which has so far not been defined

Even with dropping nearly three seconds a lap, Lando Norris was able to defend against Russell because of the extent of the lead he had established while chasing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - only one less than both McLaren drivers - was taken in emphatic style and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, although he requires issues for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

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

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

Oscar Piastri started in fifth but lost two positions on the opening lap 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 overtaking him on the Las Vegas Strip but lost position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase

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

"It proved to be a frustrating race from essentially beginning to end in certain respects," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the remaining events, he commented: "Simply attempt to position myself in the best position I can. I obviously need several of things to favor me at this stage to win, but my only option is ensure I'm in the best position to take advantage if something happens"

Leclerc held on in sixth position, insufficiently close to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car missing the pace to compete with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, following his heroic showing to qualify third in the wet

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

The seven-time champion made a flying start, up to 13th on the first lap and proceeded to advance positions

He became trapped in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was able to employ his electric start to rescue a championship point after the worst qualifying session of his racing life