Norris Advances Nearer to Title as Max Verstappen Secures Vegas Grand Prix Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris stepped closer to his first world title with runner-up position in the Vegas race following the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

The British driver now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth after Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty points going into the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

The Briton will win the championship in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender over five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

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

"Max had a good race. I erred at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that first turn," said Norris

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

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

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

• Norris maintained his progress towards the championship losing the victory to Verstappen

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

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

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

At the start, Lando Norris was true to his statement that he was "not present to avoid risks" as he fought hard to protect his advantage from pole position from Max Verstappen

But after an aggressive cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Verstappen's attack on the inside, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the corner

This enabled Max Verstappen to drive past 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, featuring at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen gradually stamped his authority on the race

George Russell undertook an early tire change for the hard tyres, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen stayed out

Norris stopped five circuits after the Mercedes and Max Verstappen 10

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

Norris returned behind George Russell from his stop but following a several careful circuits to let his tires to warm up, soon reduced his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes and swept by into runner-up position on the thirty-fourth lap

The British driver inquired his engineer how to manage the rest of his race, essentially questioning whether he should accept second or attack

He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was easily could defend against Lando's challenges, and in the final laps the margin increased significantly as the McLaren started to experience a mechanical problem which has thus far remained unidentified

Even with dropping almost three seconds a lap, Lando Norris was able to defend against Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had established while chasing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - just one less than both McLaren teammates - was achieved in emphatic style and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, although he needs problems for Lando Norris in both remaining races to pass him

"It's still a big gap, we consistently attempt to maximise all we've have," Max Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will attempt to win the event and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm very proud of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri began in fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon eliminated of contention 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 out to Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the pit-stop period

Piastri ended up after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the whole event on the durable compound following pitting during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five-second penalty for a starting procedure infringement, which was not clearly visible on replays

"It was a disappointing race from essentially start to finish in certain respects," Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would tackle the remaining events, he commented: "Simply attempt to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously need quite a lot of things to go my way at this stage to take the title, but my only option is make myself in the ideal situation to capitalise if something happens"

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

Isack Hadjar took eighth place before the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time champion made a flying start, rising to thirteenth on the first lap and continued to move forwards

He became trapped in a slipstream group with a bunch of other cars but was could use his strong beginning to salvage a championship point following the poorest qualifying session of his career