Norris Advances Closer to Championship as Verstappen Takes Vegas F1 Race Win

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

The British driver currently heads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth behind the Mercedes of George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend

Norris will win the title in the desert as long as he doesn't surrender more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen

Piastri, so impressive in the first half of the championship, has failed to finish on the podium for six consecutive events

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

"It's still a good result to secure second. I've got to praise Max and his team"

Following Qatar, the last event of the season follows 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 losing the victory to Max Verstappen

• Oscar Piastri's challenging run of form continued as his title hopes diminish

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

• Recoveries for the two Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for 10th following beginning at the rear

At the start, Lando Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not present to avoid risks" as he battled aggressively to protect his lead from pole position from Verstappen

But after an forceful cut in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Verstappen's attack on the inner line, the McLaren driver misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the corner

That enabled Max Verstappen to drive past into the lead while Norris lost second place to George Russell

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

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

Norris stopped five laps after the Mercedes driver and Verstappen ten laps later

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been failed to catch up on the Red Bull car even with his fresher tyres

Lando Norris returned after George Russell from his pit stop but following a several careful circuits to let his tires to warm up, quickly closed his three-point-three second gap to the Mercedes driver and swept by into runner-up position on the thirty-fourth lap

The British driver asked his race engineer how to run the rest of his race, essentially asking whether he should settle for second or attack

He was told to "go and get Verstappen" but it quickly became apparent he had little opportunity. Max Verstappen was readily could repel Norris' challenges, and in the final laps the gap increased substantially as the McLaren car started to experience a technical issue which has so far not been defined

Despite losing almost three seconds a lap, Norris was able to defend against George Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while chasing Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver's sixth victory of the season - just one behind the two McLaren drivers - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in title contention, at least mathematically, although he needs issues for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him

"It's still a significant margin, we always try to optimize everything we've got," Verstappen said

"In upcoming weekends we will try to take victory in the race and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I'm very proud of everyone"

Piastri began in fifth but dropped two positions on the opening lap following being hit by Lawson, who was quickly eliminated of contention by a damaged nose section

He trailed Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before overtaking him on the Strip but also position to Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the pit-stop period

The Australian ended up after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on hard tyres following stopping during the initial VSC, but was awarded a five-second time penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

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

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he said: "Just attempt to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I obviously require several of factors to favor me now to win, but my only option is ensure I'm in the ideal situation to capitalise if circumstances change"

Leclerc hung on in sixth position, insufficiently close to gain from Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh at the flag, his Williams car lacking the pace to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, following his impressive showing to start third in the wet weather

Hadjar took eighth ahead of Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton

The seven-time title winner made a strong getaway, up to 13th on the opening circuit and continued to advance positions

He became trapped in a DRS train with a group of other cars but was able to employ his electric start to salvage a point after the worst qualifying session of his racing life