Verstappen wins in Las Vegas, cuts Norris moves closer to F1 title - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — Max Verstappen claimed his second Las Vegas Grand Prix win ahead of championship leader Lando Norris to keep his slim championship chances alive.

Second position helped Norris inch closer to his first world championship, meaning he goes to the penultimate Qatar Grand Prix 30 points clear of McLaren's teammate Oscar Piastri and 42 clear of Verstappen with 58 points to play for over the next two weeks.

Verstappen won by almost 21 seconds as Norris hit late car trouble, but that was not enough to allow Mercedes driver George Russell to steal third position away from him. Piastri had to settle for a distant fourth position as his run of failing to finish ahead of Norris teammate, which stretches back to his win at the Dutch Grand Prix in late August, continued.

Norris' victory means he can wrap up the championship at next week's Qatar Grand Prix if his championship lead is 25 points or more when that race finishes on Dec. 30, but Verstappen's Sin City victory keeps his tantalizing wildcard title bid alive for at least one more week.

Verstappen looked dead and buried coming out of the summer break, but has moved back into contention with what will go down as one of F1's great late season charges. The Dutchman has now won four of the seven races since the break.

Verstappen seized control of the Saturday night's event on the opening lap of the race. Norris had started from pole position and moved across the track aggressively to keep the Red Bull driver and reigning four-time world champion behind, but then ran deep at Turn 1.

That allowed Verstappen to pass Norris at the next corner and also allowed Mercedes driver George Russell to get past him for second too. Despite a brief spell where Russell was in DRS range