🔗 Share this article

Amid all excitement around the Sin City Grand Prix, Lando Norris is maintaining a calm demeanor about his chances of securing his first drivers' championship.

Norris presently has a two-dozen point advantage over fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and leads Max Verstappen by nearly fifty points, with just up to 83 points up for grabs across the remaining trio of races. But, after staging a remarkable recovery from a significant deficit Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix in August, Norris is focused on executing with the methodical approach that propelled him to the top of the championship.

"Things can easily go in the other direction once more even though I hope it doesn't," he stated. "That's racing, you know. You can get lucky. Other times you also be unlucky. Whatever it may be. There's really no point becoming overjoyed or thinking about it. I still view it as a goal that's quite distant."

Norris has found his peak performance at a crucial moment—after difficulties with the car in the first part of the campaign—at the same time that Piastri has lost the disciplined, almost flawless ease that had for so long made him appear to be a future title winner. Notably, Norris kept a remarkable level of equanimity all along, asserting even in the face of challenges—such as his retirement from the Dutch GP—that he would adhere to his strategy and work every outing with the same unwavering focus on specifics. It has paid off.

Meanwhile, McLaren have worked hard to attempt to preserve a level playing field for their two drivers, and it has at times been a rather torturous process, especially at Monza when the squad instructed the Australian to surrender second place to his teammate after he had lost the spot due to a slow pit stop. Certain spectators were unhappy with what was considered McLaren unnecessarily interfering with their drivers.

The championship leader has won the last two grands prix, in Mexico City and Brazil, and was jeered on the winner's rostrum at both, yet he remained unmoved. "When you're leading, many individuals want to undermine you. They don't want to see you succeeding. I see it as a good thing," he said.

"It makes me laugh. While standing on the winner's stage in Interlagos, I really loved it. The experience was quite enjoyable. At last you sense that you are achieving something right.

"I don't mind, provided that I come out on top. As long as I believe I am competing the correct way, which I feel like that's the case, as long as I feel like I'm putting hard work into being who I am and those kinds of things, then I'm not too fussed with the rest of it."

Vegas, on the other hand, needs to be mastered, and it is a circuit suited to the McLaren. It shares similarities with Canada and Azerbaijan: low downforce, chilly conditions, and low grip. These are the only two circuits this season where the papaya squad have failed to secure a single podium place, and the leader was cautious again about their chances in Nevada. Yet, his objective in the short term is simple: finish in ahead of Piastri and the points he needs will come.

Practice Sees Varied Results for Title Rivals

The Ferrari driver led the leaderboard in FP1 on what was remained a dusty and extremely low-grip track. Alex Albon was second, with the Red Bull star in fourth, the McLaren ace sixth, and the Australian in eighth. During the more representative night running of FP2, Norris was quickest ahead of the Silver Arrows of Kimi Antonelli, with his teammate 14th; however, the session was interrupted for almost all of the final 20 minutes of running to inspect a suspected unsecured drain cover at turn 17.

This problem is treated with caution on a temporary track where, at the inaugural Las Vegas GP held in 2023, a dislodged drain cover struck Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, heavily harming it and causing the session to be ended.

The German Team Announce Stake Transaction

The eight-time constructors' champions have revealed that their boss the Austrian executive has divested a 15% stake in his investment firm, equating to a five percent ownership in the team, to US tycoon the cybersecurity magnate. The investor is the chief executive and creator of the digital protection firm CrowdStrike. The team principal will remain as boss and may receive as much as £230 million from the deal, with Mercedes having been appraised at £4.57 billion, a record for an F1 team.