Lando Norris Advances Nearer to Title as Verstappen Secures Las Vegas F1 Race Win

The McLaren Lando Norris moved closer to a maiden championship with runner-up position in the Las Vegas Grand Prix following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

The British driver currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place after the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points going into the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will claim 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 championship, has failed to finish on the podium for six races

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I made the mistake at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that first turn," said Norris

"It remains a positive outcome to secure second place. I've got to praise Max and Red Bull"

Following Qatar, the final race of the season follows in Abu Dhabi on 7 December

The key stories of among Formula 1's most prestigious races included:

• Norris continued his momentum towards the title losing the victory to Max Verstappen

• Oscar Piastri's challenging performance streak continued as his championship chances wane

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

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, after a tough qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for 10th after starting at the rear

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

However following an aggressive cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Verstappen's attack on the inside, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking zone and went too deep into the corner

That allowed Verstappen to overtake into the first place while the British driver lost the runner-up spot to Russell

During two virtual safety cars for several opening-lap incidents, including at the start when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Max Verstappen gradually established dominance on the race

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

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

The Red Bull driver was able to return still in the lead, Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

Lando Norris rejoined behind Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to let his tires to settle, soon closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by 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 questioning whether he should accept second place or attack

He was instructed to "go and get Max" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily could defend against Norris' challenges, and in the closing stages the gap increased significantly as the McLaren started to suffer a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Even with losing almost three seconds a lap, Lando Norris was could hold off Russell because of the size of the lead he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - just one behind the two McLaren drivers - was achieved in emphatic style and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, even if he requires issues for Lando Norris in both remaining races to pass him

"It's still a significant margin, we always try to optimize everything we've got," Max Verstappen said

"During the coming events we will try to take victory in the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri began fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap following being hit by Lawson, who was soon eliminated of the battle by a damaged nose section

He trailed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before overtaking him on the Strip but lost position to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the pit-stop period

Piastri ended up after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on hard tyres after pitting during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five second time penalty for a start-line violation, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a frustrating race from essentially beginning to end in some ways," Piastri told race broadcasters

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

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

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

The seven-time champion executed a flying start, up to 13th on the opening circuit and proceeded to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a group of additional vehicles but was able to employ his electric start to rescue a championship point after the poorest qualifying session of his racing life