Lando Norris currently holds a thirty point advantage over fellow driver Oscar Piastri with just 58 points remaining in the final two races
McLaren's Lando Norris stepped closer to a maiden championship with second place in the Vegas race following the Red Bull of Max Verstappen
Norris now leads fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who finished in fourth place behind Mercedes' George Russell, by thirty points heading to the penultimate race in Qatar this coming weekend
Norris will win the title in the desert as long as he does not lose 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 races
"Max had a strong performance. I made the mistake at the beginning and was too punchy on that first turn," said Norris
"It remains a good result to secure second place. I've got to praise Max and his team"
After Qatar, the last event of the season follows in Abu Dhabi on December 7th
The main developments of among Formula 1's most prestigious races included:
Norris maintained his progress towards the title losing the victory to Max Verstappen
Oscar Piastri's difficult run of form continued as his title hopes diminish
A excellent win for Max Verstappen to keep him in the title fight
Recoveries for both Ferrari drivers, after a tough qualifying, with Lewis Hamilton securing a point for tenth place after beginning at the back
Verstappen passes Norris at the beginning following the McLaren driver went off line at the first corner
From the beginning, Norris was faithful to his statement that he was "not here to avoid risks" as he battled aggressively to defend his advantage from starting first from Verstappen
But after an forceful cut in front of the Red Bull driver to block the Dutchman's challenge on the inner line, the McLaren driver miscalculated his braking zone and went too deep into the corner
This allowed Verstappen to overtake into the lead while Norris also second place to Russell
During two virtual safety cars for some early incidents, featuring at the beginning when the Racing Bulls Liam Lawson collided with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen slowly established dominance on the race
George Russell undertook an early pit stop for the hard tyres, but Norris and Max Verstappen remained on track
Norris pitted five laps after the Mercedes and Max Verstappen ten laps later
The Red Bull driver was could rejoin still in the first place, Russell having been failed to close in on the Red Bull car despite his newer rubber
Lando Norris returned after Russell from his stop but following a few cautious laps to let his tires to settle, soon closed his three-point-three second deficit to the Mercedes and swept by into second place on the thirty-fourth lap
Norris inquired his engineer how to run the rest of his event, effectively questioning whether he should settle for second place or challenge for the lead
He was instructed to "chase down Max" but it soon became clear he had no chance. Max Verstappen was readily able to repel Lando's attacks, and in the closing stages the gap increased significantly as the McLaren car began to experience a mechanical problem which has thus far not been defined
Even with dropping almost three seconds a lap, Norris was able to hold off George Russell because of the size of the advantage he had established while pursuing Max Verstappen
The Verstappen's sixth victory of the season - only one behind both McLaren teammates - was achieved in dominant fashion and maintains him in title contention, at minimum mathematically, even if he requires issues for Lando Norris in the final two events to overtake him
"It remains a big gap, we consistently attempt to optimize everything we've got," Max Verstappen said
"In upcoming weekends we will try to win the event and by the conclusion of Abu Dhabi we will know where we finish, but I'm very proud of everyone"
Oscar Piastri began fifth but dropped two places on the opening lap after being clouted by Liam Lawson, who was soon eliminated of contention by a broken nose section
He trailed Liam Lawson's team-mate Isack Hadjar for the first 15 laps before passing him on the Strip but lost position to Leclerc, who he was able to overtake again during the tire change phase
Piastri ended up after Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who ran almost the whole event on hard tyres after pitting during the first virtual safety car, but was given a five-second time penalty for a start-line violation, which was not immediately obvious on video reviews
"It proved to be a frustrating event from pretty much beginning to end in certain respects," Piastri told BBC Radio 5 Live
Asked about how he would tackle the remaining events, he commented: "Simply try to put myself in the optimal situation I can. I clearly require several of factors to go my way at this stage to win, but my only option is make myself in the ideal situation to take advantage if circumstances change"
Leclerc hung on in sixth position, insufficiently close to gain from Kimi Antonelli's time penalty, while Carlos Sainz dropped to seventh at the flag, his Williams car missing the pace to challenge with the leading outfits in the dry conditions, following his heroic showing to start in third in the wet
Hadjar secured eighth place ahead of Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton
The seven-time champion made a flying start, up to 13th on the first lap and proceeded to move forwards
He got stuck in a slipstream group with a bunch of additional vehicles but was could employ his electric start to rescue a championship point after the worst qualifying performance of his career
