Lando Norris Edges Nearer to Championship as Max Verstappen Claims Las Vegas F1 Race Win

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

Norris currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by thirty points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

Norris will win the championship in the Qatar as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

Piastri, so strong in the opening stages of the championship, has failed to finish on the podium for six races

"Verstappen had a good race. I erred early on and was overly aggressive on that first turn," stated Norris

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

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

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

• Norris continued his progress towards the championship despite the win to Max Verstappen

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

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

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, after a tough qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a point for tenth place following beginning at the back

At the start, Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not here not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his advantage from starting first from Verstappen

But after an forceful move in front of Verstappen to block the Verstappen's challenge on the inside, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and ran deep into the turn

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

During two VSC periods for several opening-lap incidents, including at the start when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Piastri, Verstappen slowly established dominance on the event

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

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

Verstappen was could rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull despite his newer rubber

Norris rejoined behind Russell from his stop but after a several careful circuits to allow his tyres to settle, quickly closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

Norris inquired his engineer how to manage the rest of his event, essentially questioning whether he should accept second place or challenge for the lead

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily could repel Norris' challenges, and in the closing stages the margin increased significantly as the McLaren car started to suffer a technical issue which has thus far remained unidentified

Despite dropping almost three seconds a circuit, Norris was able to hold off George Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - only one less than the two McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and keeps him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, even if he requires problems for Lando Norris in both remaining races to pass 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 attempt to take victory in the event and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we end up, but I'm very proud of everyone"

Piastri began fifth but dropped two places on the opening lap after being hit by Liam Lawson, who was quickly taken out of the battle by a damaged front wing

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

Piastri ended up after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the whole event on the durable compound after pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It proved to be a frustrating event from pretty much start to finish in certain respects," Piastri informed race broadcasters

Questioned about how he would tackle the remaining events, he said: "Simply try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously need quite a lot of factors to go my way now to take the title, but my only option is make myself in the best position to take advantage if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh at the finish, his Williams missing the speed to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry, following his heroic performance to start in third in the wet weather

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

The seven-time champion made a flying start, up to thirteenth 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 employ his electric start to rescue a point following the worst qualifying session of his career