Norris Edges Nearer to Championship as Verstappen Claims Las Vegas F1 Race Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris stepped nearer to a maiden championship with runner-up position in the Vegas race following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver currently heads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

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

Piastri, so strong in the first half of the season, has failed to finish on the top three for six races

"Max had a good race. I made the mistake at the beginning and was too punchy on that opening corner," said Norris

"It remains a positive outcome to get second. I've got to praise Verstappen and Red Bull"

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

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

• Norris maintained his momentum towards the championship despite the win to Max Verstappen

• Oscar Piastri's challenging performance streak continued as his title hopes diminish

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

• Fightbacks for both Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton securing a single point for 10th after beginning at the rear

From the beginning, Lando Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not here not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his advantage from pole position from Max Verstappen

But following an forceful move in front of Verstappen to head off the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking zone and went too deep into the corner

This enabled Verstappen to drive past into the first place while the British driver also second place to Russell

Through two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen slowly established dominance on the event

Russell undertook an early pit stop for the more durable compound, but Norris and Verstappen stayed out

Norris stopped five laps following the Mercedes and Max Verstappen 10

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

Lando Norris returned after George Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tyres to settle, soon closed his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and overtook into runner-up position on lap 34

Norris inquired his engineer how to manage the rest of his event, essentially asking whether he should settle for second or challenge for the lead

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was easily able to defend against Lando's attacks, and in the final laps the gap extended substantially as the McLaren car started to experience a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined

Despite losing nearly three seconds a circuit, Norris was could defend against Russell because of the size of the lead he had established while chasing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - only one behind the two McLaren teammates - was achieved in emphatic style and keeps him in championship contention, at least mathematically, even if he needs problems for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It's still a big gap, we always try to maximise all we've got," Verstappen said

"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 extremely pleased of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri began in fifth but lost two positions on the first circuit after being hit by Lawson, who was quickly taken out of the battle by a broken nose section

He followed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before passing him on the Strip but lost position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the pit-stop period

The Australian finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on hard tyres after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five second time penalty for a starting procedure infringement, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a disappointing race from essentially beginning to end in some ways," Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the remaining events, he commented: "Just try to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously require quite a lot of things to go my way now to take the title, but my only option is ensure I'm in the best position to capitalise if something happens"

Leclerc held on in sixth place, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's time penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the finish, his Williams missing the speed to compete with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, after his impressive performance to qualify in third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time champion made a strong getaway, up to 13th on the opening circuit and continued to advance positions

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was could use his strong beginning to salvage a championship point after the worst qualifying session of his career