Norris Moves Closer to Title as Max Verstappen Claims Vegas F1 Race Victory

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

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

The Briton will claim the title in the Qatar as long as he does not lose more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or seventeen to Verstappen

The Australian driver, so strong in the opening stages of the championship, has not finished on the top three for six consecutive events

"Max had a good race. I erred at the beginning and was overly aggressive on that opening corner," stated Norris

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

Following Qatar, the last event of the championship follows in Abu Dhabi on December 7th

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

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

• Piastri's difficult performance streak continued as his title hopes diminish

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

• Fightbacks for the two Ferrari drivers, after a difficult qualifying session, with Lewis Hamilton claiming a single point for tenth place following starting at the rear

From the beginning, Lando Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not present not to take risks" as he battled aggressively to defend his advantage from starting first from Max Verstappen

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

This allowed Verstappen to overtake into the lead while Norris also the runner-up spot to Russell

During two VSC periods for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson made contact with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen slowly established dominance on the race

George Russell undertook an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Norris and Verstappen stayed out

The McLaren driver stopped five circuits following the Mercedes and Verstappen 10

The Red Bull driver was could return still in the lead, Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull car even with his newer rubber

Norris rejoined behind Russell from his pit stop but after a few cautious laps to allow his tires to settle, quickly reduced his 3.3-second gap to the Mercedes driver and overtook into second place on lap 34

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

He was told to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was easily able to defend against Norris' attacks, and in the final laps the gap increased substantially as the McLaren started to suffer a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined

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

The Verstappen's sixth victory of the championship - just one less than the two McLaren teammates - was achieved in dominant fashion and keeps him in championship contention, at minimum mathematically, although he needs issues for Lando Norris in both remaining races to pass him

"It remains a big gap, we always try to maximise everything we've got," Verstappen stated

"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm extremely pleased of everyone"

Oscar Piastri started in fifth but lost two positions on the opening lap after being hit by Liam Lawson, who was quickly taken out of the battle by a broken nose section

He trailed Lawson's teammate Isack Hadjar for the opening fifteen circuits before overtaking him on the Strip but also out to Charles Leclerc, who he was could repass during the tire change phase

Piastri finished after the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on hard tyres after pitting during the initial VSC, but was given a five second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not clearly visible on video reviews

"It was a disappointing race from pretty much beginning to end in some ways," Piastri informed BBC Radio 5 Live

Asked about how he would approach the remaining events, he commented: "Just try to put myself in the best position I can. I clearly need quite a lot of things to go my way at this stage to win, but all I can do is make myself in the ideal situation to take advantage if circumstances change"

Charles Leclerc held on in sixth place, not close enough to gain from Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz fell to seventh place at the flag, his Williams car lacking the speed to compete with the top teams in the dry, after his heroic showing to start in third in the wet

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

The seven-time champion executed a strong getaway, up to 13th on the opening circuit and proceeded to advance positions

He got stuck in a DRS train with a group of other cars but was could employ his strong beginning to rescue a point following the poorest qualifying session of his career