Norris moves closer to title as Verstappen wins

McLaren’s Lando Norris moved closer to his first world title with second place in the Las Vegas Grand Prix behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Norris leads team-mate Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth behind Mercedes’ George Russell, by 30 points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar next weekend.

The Briton will win the championship in the desert as long as he does not lose more than five points to Piastri in Losail, or 17 to Verstappen.

Piastri, so strong in the first half of the season, has not finished on the podium for six races.

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

«It’s still a good result to get second. I’ve got to congratulate Max and Red Bull.»

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

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

At the start, Norris was true to his claim that he was «not here not to take risks» as he fought hard to defend his advantage from pole position from Verstappen.

But after an aggressive cut in front of Verstappen to head off the Dutchman’s attack on the inside, Norris misjudged his braking point and ran deep into the corner.

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

Through two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, including at the start when Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson collided with Piastri, Verstappen slowly stamped his authority on the race.

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

Norris stopped five laps after the Mercedes and Verstappen 10.

Verstappen was able to rejoin still in the lead, Russell having been unable to close in on the Red Bull despite his fresher tyres.

Norris rejoined behind Russell from his stop but after a few cautious laps to allow his tyres to settle, soon closed his 3.3-second deficit to the Mercedes and swept by into second place on lap 34.

Norris asked his engineer how to run the rest of his race, effectively asking whether he should settle for second or attack.

He was told to «go and get Max» but it soon became clear he had no chance. Verstappen was easily able to repel Norris’ attacks, and in the closing stages the margin extended significantly as the McLaren began to suffer a technical issue which has so far not been defined.

Despite losing nearly three seconds a lap, Norris was able to hold off Russell because of the size of the advantage he had built while chasing Verstappen.

The Red Bull driver’s sixth win of the season – only one behind both McLaren drivers – was taken in emphatic style and and keeps him in title contention, at least mathematically, even if he requires problems for Norris in both remaining races to overtake him.

«It’s still a big gap, we always try and maximise everything we’ve got,» Verstappen said.

«In upcoming weekends we will try and win the race and at the end of Abu Dhabi we will see where we end up, but I’m very proud of everyone.»

Piastri started fifth but lost two places on the opening lap after being clouted by Lawson, who was soon taken out of contention by a broken front wing.

He trailed Lawson’s team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before passing him on the Strip but also lost out to Leclerc, who he was able to repass during the pit-stop period.

The Australian ended up behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the entire race on hard tyres after stopping during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five-second penalty for a start-line infringement, which was not immediately obvious on replays.

Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live: «It was a frustrating race from pretty much start to finish in some ways.»

Asked about how he would approach the final two races, he said: «Just try to put myself in the best position I can. I obviously need quite a lot of things to go my way now to win, but all I can do is make myself in the best position to capitalise if something happens.»

Leclerc hung on in sixth place, not close enough to benefit from Antonelli’s penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh at the flag, his Williams lacking the pace to compete with the top teams in the dry, after his heroic performance to qualify third in the wet.

Hadjar took eighth ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton.

The seven-time champion made a flying start, up to 13th on the first lap and continued to move forwards.

He got stuck in a DRS train with a bunch of other cars but was able to use his electric start to salvage a point after the worst qualifying session of his career.