🔗 Share this article

Amid all hype surrounding the Sin City Grand Prix, Lando Norris is keeping a level head about his prospects of securing his maiden drivers' championship.

The British driver presently has a 24-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 comeback from 34 points behind Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix in August, Norris is concentrating on performing with the methodical approach that lifted him to the lead of the championship.

"It can easily go the opposite way once more even though I don't want it to," he stated. "That's racing, you know. You can also have luck. You can also be unlucky. No matter what happens. There's really not worth getting excited or thinking about it. I continue to view it as something that remains far away."

Norris has found his best form at a critical moment—after difficulties with the vehicle in the first part of the campaign—at the same time that Piastri has lost the disciplined, almost perfect composure that had for so long made him seem to be a future title winner. Notably, Norris maintained a remarkable level of equanimity all along, insisting despite setbacks—like his withdrawal from the Dutch GP—that he would stick to his strategy and approach every outing with the identical relentless focus on specifics. It has paid off.

All the while, the team have gone to no little effort to try to preserve a fair competition for their two drivers, and it has at times been something of torturous process, especially at Monza when the team directed the Australian to cede the runner-up spot to Norris following he had fallen behind because of a slow pit stop. Some fans did not take well to what was considered McLaren unnecessarily manipulating their drivers.

Norris has won the last two races, in Mexico and Brazil, and was booed on the winner's rostrum at both, leaving him unfazed. "Once you are leading, many individuals try to undermine you. They do not like seeing you winning. I consider it a positive sign," he remarked.

"It just amuses me. While standing on the podium in Interlagos, I really enjoyed it. The experience was very satisfying. You finally feel like you are achieving something right.

"It doesn't bother me, provided that I come out on top. As long as I feel like I'm doing it the correct manner, and I think that's the case, so long as I feel like I'm putting hard work into being who I am and those kinds of things, then I am not concerned about the rest of it."

Vegas, on the other hand, must be mastered, and it is a circuit suited to the McLaren. The layout has characteristics with Canada and Baku: minimal aerodynamic grip, cool temperatures, and low grip. These are the only two tracks in the current championship where McLaren have failed to claim a single podium place, and the leader was circumspect once more about their chances this weekend. Still, his task in the immediate future is simple: end the race in ahead of Piastri and the points he needs will follow.

Practice Shows Varied Outcomes for Title Rivals

The Ferrari driver led the times in FP1 on what was remained a sandy and very slippery surface. The Williams racer was runner-up, with Verstappen in fourth, Norris sixth, and Piastri eighth. During the more representative night running of FP2, the Briton was fastest from the Silver Arrows of Kimi Antonelli, with his teammate down in fourteenth; though, the practice was interrupted for almost all of the final 20 minutes of running to inspect a suspected loose manhole cover at the penultimate corner.

The issue is treated with caution on a street circuit where, at the first Nevada GP held in 2023, a dislodged drain cover smashed into the Ferrari, severely damaging it and leading to the practice to be ended.

Mercedes Announce Ownership Sale

The eight-time constructors' champions have revealed that their team principal Toto Wolff has sold a 15% stake in his holding company, representing a 5% share in the squad, to US tycoon George Kurtz. The investor is the CEO and founder of the digital protection firm the tech giant. Wolff will stay on as boss and could earn as much as £230 million from the sale, with Mercedes having been appraised at £4.57 billion, a new high for an F1 team.