Norris Edges Closer to Title as Verstappen Takes Vegas F1 Race Victory

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

The British driver currently heads teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth behind Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty points going into the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend

Norris will win the championship 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 impressive in the first half of the championship, has not finished on the podium for six consecutive events

"Verstappen had a strong performance. I made the mistake at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," stated Norris

"It's still a positive outcome to get second place. I've got to praise Max and his team"

After Qatar, the last event of the championship takes place in Abu Dhabi on 7 December

The main developments of one of Formula 1's most prestigious races included:

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

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

• A excellent win for Max Verstappen to keep him in the championship battle

• Recoveries for both Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton securing a single point for 10th after beginning at the back

At the start, Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not here to avoid risks" as he battled aggressively to defend his advantage from pole position from Max Verstappen

However after an forceful cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking point and went too deep into the turn

That allowed Max Verstappen to overtake into the lead while Norris lost second place to George Russell

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

George Russell undertook an early tire change for the hard tyres, but Norris and Max Verstappen remained on track

Norris stopped five circuits after the Mercedes and Max Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was able to rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull even with his newer rubber

Lando Norris returned after George Russell from his stop but following a few cautious laps to allow his tires to warm up, quickly reduced his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and overtook into runner-up position on lap 34

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

He was told to "chase down Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had no chance. Max Verstappen was easily could defend against Norris' challenges, and in the final laps the gap extended substantially as the McLaren car started to experience a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined

Despite losing nearly three seconds a circuit, Lando Norris was able to hold off Russell because of the extent of the advantage he had established while pursuing Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - 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 needs issues for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It's still a big gap, we always try to optimize everything we've have," Verstappen stated

"During the coming events we will attempt to win 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 started in fifth but dropped two places on the first circuit after being hit by Lawson, who was soon eliminated of the battle by a damaged front wing

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

Piastri ended up behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on hard tyres after pitting during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five second time penalty for a starting procedure infringement, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews

"It was a frustrating race from essentially beginning to end in certain respects," Oscar Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he commented: "Simply try to put myself in the best position I can. I clearly require quite a lot of factors to favor me at this stage to take the title, but my only option is ensure I'm in the best position to capitalise if something happens"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth position, not close enough to gain from Antonelli's penalty, while Sainz dropped to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car lacking the speed to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, following his heroic performance to qualify third in the wet weather

Hadjar secured eighth before Sauber's 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 became trapped in a DRS train with a bunch of additional vehicles but was could employ his strong beginning to rescue a point after the worst qualifying session of his racing life