Norris Moves Nearer to Championship as Verstappen Secures Vegas F1 Race Win

The McLaren Lando Norris moved closer to his first championship with second place in the Vegas race behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

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

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

The Australian driver, so impressive in the opening stages of the championship, has not finished on the top three for six consecutive events

"Max had a strong performance. I erred early on and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," stated Norris

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

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

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

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

• Piastri's challenging run of form continued as his title hopes wane

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

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a point for tenth place after starting at the rear

At the start, Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not present not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his advantage from pole position from Verstappen

However after an aggressive cut in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inside, Norris misjudged his braking zone and ran deep into the turn

That allowed Max Verstappen to overtake into the first place 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, Verstappen gradually established dominance on the event

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

The McLaren driver stopped five laps after the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen ten laps later

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

Norris rejoined behind Russell from his stop but after a several careful circuits to allow his tyres to settle, soon closed his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes and overtook into runner-up position on lap 34

The British driver asked his engineer how to manage the rest of his event, essentially asking whether he should accept second or challenge for the lead

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily could repel Norris' challenges, and in the closing stages the gap increased substantially as the McLaren started to suffer a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Even with losing nearly three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was could hold off George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had built while pursuing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the championship - only one behind the two McLaren drivers - was taken in emphatic style and maintains him in title contention, at least theoretically, although he needs problems for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It's still a significant margin, we always try to optimize all we've have," Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will try to take victory in the event and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Piastri began in fifth but lost two positions on the first circuit following being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon taken out of the battle by a broken nose section

He followed Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before passing him on the Strip but lost out to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on the durable compound after stopping during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five second penalty for a start-line violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It proved to be a disappointing event from essentially beginning to end in some ways," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would tackle the final two races, he said: "Simply try to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously need several of things to favor me now to win, but my only option is ensure I'm in the best position to take advantage if something happens"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth place, not close enough to benefit from Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh at the finish, his Williams car missing the pace to challenge with the top teams in the dry, after his heroic showing to qualify third in the wet

Hadjar secured eighth place before the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time champion executed a flying start, rising to 13th on the opening circuit and proceeded to advance positions

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 session of his career