Lando Norris Advances Nearer to Title as Max Verstappen Secures Las 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 now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth after the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points going into the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will secure the title in the desert as long as he does not lose more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so impressive in the opening stages of the season, has failed to finish 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," stated Norris

"It's still a good result to secure second. I've got to praise Max and Red Bull"

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

The main developments of one of Formula 1's most high-profile races included:

• Lando Norris maintained his momentum towards the title despite the victory to Verstappen

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

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

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, following a tough qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for tenth place following starting at the rear

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

However following an aggressive cut in front of Verstappen to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inside, Norris miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the corner

This enabled 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 start when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen gradually stamped his authority on the race

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

The McLaren driver pitted five circuits after the Mercedes driver and Verstappen 10

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

Lando Norris returned behind Russell from his pit stop but after a several careful circuits to allow his tyres to warm up, soon reduced his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

Norris inquired his race engineer how to manage the remainder of his race, effectively questioning whether he should accept second place or attack

He was told to "go and get Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was readily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the margin extended substantially as the McLaren began to experience a technical issue which has so far not been defined

Despite dropping nearly three seconds a lap, Norris was could defend against George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had established while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the season - just one less than both McLaren drivers - was taken in emphatic style and maintains him in championship contention, at least theoretically, although he requires problems for Norris in both remaining races to pass him

"It remains a big gap, we consistently attempt to maximise everything we've got," Max Verstappen said

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

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 broken nose section

He followed Liam Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Strip but also position to Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

The Australian finished after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the entire race on hard tyres after pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five-second time penalty for a start-line violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It was a disappointing race from essentially start to finish in certain respects," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would approach the remaining events, he commented: "Just try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously need quite a lot of factors to favor me now to win, but all I can do is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to take advantage if something happens"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh at the flag, his Williams car lacking the speed to compete with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his impressive performance to start in third in the wet

Hadjar took eighth ahead of Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a flying start, rising to thirteenth on the opening circuit and continued to move forwards

He got stuck in a DRS train with a group of other cars but was could employ his electric start to rescue a championship point following the worst qualifying performance of his career