Norris Advances Nearer to Title as Max Verstappen Secures Vegas F1 Race Victory

McLaren's Lando Norris moved nearer to a maiden world title with second place in the Vegas race following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

Norris currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place after Mercedes' George Russell, by 30 points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar this coming weekend

The Briton will secure the title in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

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

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I made the mistake early on and was too punchy on that opening corner," said Norris

"It remains a good result to get second. I've got to praise Max and his team"

After Qatar, the final race of the season takes place in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

The main developments of among Formula 1's most high-profile races included:

• Norris continued his progress towards the championship despite the victory to Verstappen

• Oscar Piastri's challenging performance streak persisted as his title hopes diminish

• A superb victory for Max Verstappen to keep him in the championship battle

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, following a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for 10th after starting at the back

From the beginning, Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not present not to take risks" as he fought hard to protect his advantage from starting first from Verstappen

However after an aggressive move in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Dutchman's challenge on the inner line, Norris miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the corner

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

During two virtual safety cars for several opening-lap incidents, including at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen gradually stamped his authority on the race

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

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

The Red Bull driver was could rejoin still in the lead, George Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull even with his newer rubber

Norris rejoined after Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to allow his tyres to settle, quickly reduced his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes and swept by into second place on the thirty-fourth lap

Norris asked his race engineer how to manage the remainder of his event, effectively questioning whether he should settle for second or attack

He was told to "go and get Max" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Verstappen was readily able to defend against Lando's attacks, and in the final laps the gap extended significantly as the McLaren car began to experience a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Even with dropping nearly three seconds a circuit, Norris was able to defend against George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had established while pursuing Max Verstappen

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

"It remains a significant margin, we always try to maximise all we've got," Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will try to take victory in the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we end up, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

Piastri started fifth but lost two positions on the opening lap after being clouted by Lawson, who was soon eliminated of the battle by a damaged nose section

He followed Liam Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Las Vegas Strip but also position to Charles Leclerc, who he was could repass during the pit-stop period

Piastri finished behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on hard tyres after pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five second time penalty for a starting procedure infringement, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a disappointing event from pretty much start to finish in some ways," 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 optimal situation I can. I obviously need quite a lot of factors to favor me at this stage to win, but all I can do is make myself in the best position to take advantage if circumstances change"

Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh at the finish, his Williams car lacking the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry conditions, following his heroic showing to start third in the wet weather

Hadjar secured eighth place ahead of Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time champion made a strong getaway, up to thirteenth on the opening circuit and continued to advance positions

He got stuck in a DRS train with a bunch of additional vehicles but was able to employ his strong beginning to rescue a championship point following the poorest qualifying session of his racing life