Norris Moves Closer to Championship as Verstappen Secures Vegas F1 Race Win

The McLaren Lando Norris moved closer to his first championship with runner-up position in the Vegas race following Red Bull's Max Verstappen

Norris currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who ended up in fourth place behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points going into the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

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

The Australian driver, so impressive in the first half of the championship, has failed to finish on the podium for six races

"Max had a strong performance. I erred at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that first turn," said Norris

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

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

The main developments of among Formula 1's most prestigious races were:

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

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

• A superb win for Verstappen to maintain him in the championship battle

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

At the start, Lando Norris was faithful to his claim that he was "not present not to take risks" as he fought hard to protect his lead from starting first from Verstappen

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

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

Through two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the start when Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen gradually established dominance on the event

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

The McLaren driver stopped five laps following the Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen 10

Verstappen was able to return still in the first place, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

Norris returned behind Russell from his pit stop but after a several careful circuits to let his tyres to warm up, soon closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes and overtook into runner-up position on lap 34

The British driver asked his engineer how to manage the rest of his event, effectively questioning whether he should settle for second or challenge for the lead

He was told to "chase down Verstappen" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was easily could defend against Lando's attacks, and in the final laps the margin increased significantly as the McLaren car began to suffer a mechanical problem which has so far not been defined

Even with losing nearly three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was could defend against George Russell because of the extent of the lead he had built while chasing Verstappen

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

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

"In upcoming weekends 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 the entire team"

Oscar Piastri began fifth but lost two places on the opening lap after being clouted by Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of the battle by a damaged nose section

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

Piastri finished after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran nearly the whole event on hard tyres following stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was awarded a five-second time penalty for a starting procedure violation, which was not clearly visible on replays

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

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he said: "Simply try to position myself in the best position I can. I clearly need several of things to favor me at this stage to win, but my only option is make myself in the best position to take advantage if circumstances change"

Leclerc held on in sixth place, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh place at the finish, his Williams car lacking the speed to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, following his heroic performance to qualify in third in the wet

Hadjar secured eighth place ahead of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a strong getaway, up to 13th on the opening circuit and proceeded to move forwards

He got stuck in a slipstream group with a group of other cars but was could employ his electric start to salvage a point after the poorest qualifying session of his racing life