🔗 Share this article

Amid all excitement surrounding the Sin City Grand Prix, Lando Norris is keeping a calm demeanor about his chances of securing his maiden world title.

The British driver presently holds a two-dozen point lead over teammate Oscar Piastri and leads Max Verstappen by 49 points, with only up to 83 points available across the final three events. However, after pulling off a remarkable recovery from a significant deficit his teammate following the Dutch Grand Prix in August, Norris is concentrating on performing with the methodical approach that propelled him to the top of the championship.

"Things can quickly go in the other direction once more as much as I hope it doesn't," he commented. "That's racing, you know. Sometimes you also have luck. Other times you end up unfortunate. Whatever it may be. It's not worth getting excited or thinking about it. I continue to do see it as a goal that remains far away."

The 26-year-old has found his peak performance at a critical juncture—after difficulties with the car in the opening half of the campaign—at the same time that his teammate has shed the disciplined, almost perfect composure that had for so long made him seem to be a future title winner. Importantly, Norris maintained a remarkable level of equanimity throughout, insisting even in the face of challenges—like his retirement from the Dutch GP—that he would stick to his gameplan and approach each session with the identical relentless attention to detail. It has yielded results.

Meanwhile, the team have gone to no little effort to try to preserve a fair competition for their pair of racers, and it has at times been a rather torturous experience, most notably at the Italian Grand Prix when the team directed Piastri to cede second place to Norris following he had lost the spot because of a delayed tire change. Some fans did not take well to what was considered McLaren unnecessarily manipulating their drivers.

Norris has claimed victory in the last two races, in Mexico and Brazil, and was jeered on the podium at each, yet he remained unfazed. "When you're on top, many individuals try to bring you down. They don't want to see you succeeding. I see it as a positive sign," he remarked.

"It makes me laugh. When I was on the winner's stage in Brazil, I truly enjoyed it. The experience was quite enjoyable. You finally feel like you're doing success.

"It doesn't bother me, provided that I win. If I feel like I am competing the correct manner, and I think I am, as long as I am confident I am dedicating effort into remaining true to myself and similar principles, then I am not concerned about the rest of it."

Las Vegas, on the other hand, must be mastered, and it is a circuit suited to the British team. The layout has similarities with Montreal and Azerbaijan: low downforce, chilly conditions, and slippery surfaces. They are the only two tracks in the current championship where McLaren have been unable to secure a single podium place, and the leader was circumspect again about their prospects this weekend. Still, his objective in the immediate future is straightforward: finish in ahead of his teammate and the championship tally he requires will come.

Friday Running Sees Varied Outcomes for Championship Contenders

The Ferrari driver led the leaderboard in FP1 on what was remained a dusty and very low-grip surface. The Williams racer was second, with Verstappen in fourth, the McLaren ace in P6, and Piastri in eighth. In the more representative evening session of FP2, Norris was quickest ahead of the Mercedes of the Italian rookie, with his teammate down in fourteenth; though, the session lost nearly the final 20 minutes of track time to inspect a suspected loose manhole cover at the penultimate corner.

The issue is taken seriously on a temporary track where, at the inaugural Las Vegas GP held in 2023, a loose manhole struck Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, severely harming it and causing the session to be aborted.

The German Team Announce Ownership Sale

The eight-time constructors' champions have confirmed that their team principal the Austrian executive has sold a 15% stake in his holding company, representing a 5% share in the team, to US tycoon the cybersecurity magnate. Kurtz is the chief executive and creator of the digital protection firm the tech giant. Wolff will remain as team principal and could earn as much as £230 million from the deal, with the Brackley-based outfit having been appraised at £4.57bn, a new high for an F1 team.