Norris Edges Nearer to Title as Verstappen Claims Las Vegas Grand Prix Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris moved nearer to a maiden world title with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

Norris currently heads teammate Oscar Piastri, who ended up fourth behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points going into the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will secure the title in the desert as long as he doesn't surrender over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

Piastri, so strong in the first half of the season, has not finished on the top three for six consecutive events

"Verstappen had a good race. I made the mistake early on and was too punchy on that first turn," said Norris

"It remains a good result to get second. I've got to praise Max and Red Bull"

Following 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 were:

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

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

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

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, following a tough qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for tenth place following starting at the back

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

However after an forceful move in front of Verstappen to block the Dutchman's challenge on the inner line, Norris misjudged his braking zone and went too deep into the turn

That enabled Verstappen to drive past into the first place while the British driver lost second place to George Russell

Through two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the race

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

The McLaren driver pitted five circuits following the Mercedes and Max Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was could rejoin still in the first place, George Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull even with his newer rubber

Norris rejoined behind George Russell from his stop but after a several careful circuits to let his tires to warm up, soon reduced his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

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

He was told to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had little opportunity. Verstappen was easily could defend against Norris' challenges, and in the final laps the gap 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, Lando Norris was could defend against Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had established while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth win of the season - only one less than both McLaren teammates - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at least theoretically, even if he requires problems for Lando Norris in the final two events to overtake him

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

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

Piastri started in fifth but dropped two places on the first circuit following being clouted by Lawson, who was soon taken out of the battle by a damaged front wing

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

Piastri ended up after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on the durable compound after stopping during the initial VSC, but was given a five second time penalty for a start-line violation, which was not clearly visible on replays

"It was a disappointing event from pretty much beginning to end in some ways," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would approach the remaining events, he said: "Just attempt to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly need quite a lot of factors to favor me now to take the title, but my only option is make myself in the ideal situation to capitalise if something happens"

Leclerc held on in sixth place, insufficiently close to benefit from Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz fell to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car missing the speed to challenge with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his heroic showing to qualify third in the wet weather

Isack Hadjar secured eighth ahead of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a strong getaway, up to thirteenth on the first lap and continued to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was able to employ his strong beginning to salvage a point after the worst qualifying performance of his career