Norris Moves Closer to Championship as Max Verstappen Secures Vegas F1 Race Victory

McLaren's Lando Norris stepped nearer to a maiden championship with runner-up position in the Las Vegas Grand Prix following the Red Bull of Max Verstappen

Norris now leads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points heading to the second-to-last race in Qatar next weekend

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

The Australian driver, so strong in the opening stages of the championship, has failed to finish on the top three for six consecutive events

"Verstappen had a good race. I made the mistake early on and was too punchy on that first turn," said Norris

"It remains a good result to get second place. I've got to congratulate Verstappen and his team"

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

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

• Lando Norris continued his momentum towards the title losing the win to Max Verstappen

• Piastri's difficult run of form continued as his championship chances diminish

• A excellent victory for Verstappen to maintain him in the championship battle

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for tenth place after starting at the back

At the start, Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not present not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to defend his lead from pole position from Verstappen

However following an aggressive cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Verstappen's challenge on the inner line, Norris misjudged his braking zone and went too deep into the turn

This allowed Max Verstappen to overtake into the lead while the British driver lost the runner-up spot to George Russell

During two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the beginning when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the event

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

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

The Red Bull driver was could return still in the first place, George Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull car despite his fresher tyres

Norris rejoined after Russell from his pit stop but following a few cautious laps to allow his tires to settle, soon reduced his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes and swept by into runner-up position on lap 34

Norris inquired his race engineer how to run the remainder of his event, essentially questioning whether he should accept second place or attack

He was instructed to "chase down Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Max Verstappen was easily able to defend against Norris' challenges, and in the final laps the margin increased substantially as the McLaren car started to experience a technical issue which has thus far not been defined

Even with losing nearly three seconds a circuit, Norris was could hold off Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had built while pursuing Max Verstappen

The Verstappen's sixth win of the championship - only one behind the two McLaren drivers - was taken in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at minimum theoretically, even if he needs issues for Norris in the final two events to overtake him

"It remains a big gap, we consistently attempt to optimize everything we've have," Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will attempt to win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of the entire team"

Piastri started 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 front wing

He followed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before passing him on the Strip but lost out to Charles Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase

The Australian ended up behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who competed nearly the whole event on hard tyres after pitting during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It proved to be a disappointing race from pretty much beginning to end in certain respects," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would tackle the remaining events, he commented: "Simply try to put myself in the best position I can. I clearly need several of things to go my way now to win, but my only option is make myself in the ideal situation to take advantage if something happens"

Charles Leclerc hung on in sixth place, insufficiently close to benefit from Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh at the flag, his Williams car missing the pace to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry, following his impressive performance to start third in the wet

Isack Hadjar secured eighth before the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time champion made a flying start, rising to 13th on the opening circuit and continued to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of additional vehicles but was could use his electric start to rescue a championship point following the poorest qualifying session of his career