Lando Norris Moves Closer to Title as Max Verstappen Claims Vegas Grand Prix Victory

McLaren's Lando Norris moved closer to a maiden championship with runner-up position in the Vegas race behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen

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

Norris will claim the title in the Qatar as long as he does not lose over 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 top three for six consecutive events

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

"It's still a good result to secure second place. I've got to praise Verstappen and his team"

Following Qatar, the last event of the season follows in Abu Dhabi on 7 December

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

• Lando Norris continued his momentum towards the championship despite the victory to Max Verstappen

• Oscar Piastri's difficult run of form persisted as his title hopes diminish

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

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for 10th following beginning at the rear

From the beginning, Lando Norris was true to his statement that he was "not present to avoid risks" as he battled aggressively to defend his lead from pole position from Verstappen

However following an forceful move in front of Verstappen to block the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking zone and went too deep into the corner

That allowed Verstappen to drive past into the lead while the British driver lost the runner-up spot to Russell

During two VSC periods for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen slowly established dominance on the event

George Russell made an early pit stop for the more durable compound, but Lando Norris and Max Verstappen stayed out

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

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

Norris returned behind Russell from his pit stop but after a several careful circuits to let his tires to warm up, soon closed his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

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

He was told to "go and get Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily could defend against Lando's attacks, and in the closing stages the margin extended significantly as the McLaren started to suffer a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Even with dropping nearly three seconds a lap, Lando Norris was could hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while chasing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth win of the season - just one less than both McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum theoretically, although he needs problems for Lando Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It's still a significant margin, we consistently attempt to maximise all we've have," Max Verstappen stated

"During the coming events 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 lost two places on the opening lap after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of the battle by a damaged nose section

He trailed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Strip but also out to Charles Leclerc, who he was could repass during the pit-stop period

Piastri finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who competed almost the entire race on hard tyres after pitting during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five-second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not immediately obvious on replays

"It was a disappointing event from essentially start to finish in some ways," Oscar Piastri told race broadcasters

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he said: "Simply try to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously require quite a lot of factors to go my way at this stage to win, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to take advantage if something happens"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh at the flag, his Williams missing the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his heroic performance to qualify in third in the wet

Hadjar took eighth place ahead of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time title winner executed a strong getaway, up to 13th on the first lap and continued to move forwards

He became trapped in a DRS train with a bunch of additional vehicles but was able to use his strong beginning to rescue a point following the worst qualifying session of his career