Lando Norris Edges Closer to Title as Max Verstappen Secures Las Vegas Grand Prix Win

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

Norris now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth after Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points going into the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will win the title in the Qatar as long as he does not lose over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so strong in the opening stages of the season, has not finished on the podium for six consecutive events

"Verstappen had a good race. I made the mistake early on and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," said Norris

"It's still a good result to get second place. I've got to congratulate Max and Red Bull"

Following Qatar, the final race of the season takes place in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

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

• Lando Norris continued his progress towards the championship despite the victory to Verstappen

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

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

• Recoveries for both Ferrari drivers, following a tough qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for tenth place following beginning at the rear

At the start, Lando Norris was true to his statement that he was "not here not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to defend his advantage from starting first from Max Verstappen

However following an forceful cut in front of Verstappen to block the Dutchman's attack on the inner line, Norris misjudged his braking zone and went too deep into the corner

This enabled Verstappen to overtake into the lead while the British driver also the runner-up spot to Russell

During two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly established dominance on the race

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

Norris stopped five laps after the Mercedes and Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was able to rejoin still in the first place, George Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres

Norris returned behind Russell from his stop but after a several careful circuits to let his tyres to warm up, quickly reduced his 3.3-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 run the rest of his race, effectively asking whether he should settle for second place or attack

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was easily could repel Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the gap extended substantially as the McLaren began to suffer a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Despite losing nearly three seconds a circuit, Norris was could hold off George Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while chasing Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the championship - only one less than the two McLaren drivers - was taken in emphatic style and maintains him in title contention, at least mathematically, 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," Verstappen said

"During the coming events we will attempt to win the event and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Piastri began fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap after being clouted by Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of contention by a broken front wing

He trailed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before overtaking him on the Strip but lost out to Charles Leclerc, who he was could 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 stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It proved to be a disappointing event from pretty much beginning to end in certain respects," Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would approach the remaining events, he commented: "Just try to position myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously need quite a lot of things to favor me now to take the title, but my only option is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to take advantage if something happens"

Leclerc held on in sixth position, not close enough to benefit from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car missing the speed to compete with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, after his heroic performance to start in third in the wet weather

Hadjar secured eighth before Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a flying start, up to 13th on the first lap and proceeded to move forwards

He became trapped in a slipstream group with a group of additional vehicles but was could use his strong beginning to salvage a point after the worst qualifying performance of his racing life