Lando Norris Edges Nearer to Title as Max Verstappen Secures Las Vegas Grand Prix Victory

The McLaren Lando Norris stepped nearer to a maiden championship with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

Norris now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth after the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

Norris will claim the championship in the desert as long as he doesn't surrender over five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so impressive in the first half of the championship, has not finished on the top three for six races

"Max had a good race. I made the mistake early on and was overly aggressive on that first turn," said Norris

"It's still a good result to secure second place. I've got to congratulate Max and Red Bull"

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

The key stories of among Formula 1's most high-profile races included:

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

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

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

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

At the start, Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not present not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to defend his lead from starting first from Max Verstappen

But after an aggressive move in front of Verstappen to block the Dutchman's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and went too deep into the corner

That allowed Verstappen to drive past into the lead while Norris also second place to Russell

During two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, including at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the event

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

Norris stopped five laps after the Mercedes driver and Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was could rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been unable to catch up on the Red Bull car despite his newer rubber

Norris rejoined after Russell from his stop but following a several careful circuits to let his tyres to warm up, soon reduced his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

Norris inquired his engineer how to run the rest of his event, effectively asking 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. Verstappen was easily could defend against Norris' challenges, and in the final laps the gap extended substantially as the McLaren car started to suffer a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Despite dropping nearly three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was able to defend against George Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while chasing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - just one less than the two McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and keeps him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, even if he needs issues for Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It's still a significant margin, we consistently attempt to optimize all we've got," Max Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we finish, but I'm very proud of the entire team"

Oscar Piastri started in fifth but lost two places on the opening lap after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon eliminated of contention by a broken front wing

He trailed Lawson's team-mate 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 finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event 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 immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a frustrating race from pretty much start to finish in some ways," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Questioned about how he would tackle the final two races, he said: "Just attempt to put myself in the best position I can. I clearly need several 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"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth position, not close enough to benefit from Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh at the flag, his Williams car lacking the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry, following his impressive performance to qualify third in the wet

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

The seven-time champion executed a strong getaway, rising to thirteenth on the first lap and continued to move forwards

He got stuck in a DRS train with a group of additional vehicles but was able to employ his electric start to salvage a point following the poorest qualifying performance of his racing life