🔗 Share this article

Despite the excitement surrounding the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lando Norris is maintaining a level head about his chances of claiming his first world title.

Norris currently has a 24-point lead over fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and leads Max Verstappen by 49 points, with only a maximum of eighty-three points available across the remaining trio of events. But, after pulling off a remarkable comeback from 34 points behind Piastri after the Zandvoort race in the summer, Norris is concentrating on performing with the clinical precision that lifted him to the top of the championship.

"Things can easily turn the opposite way once more even though I hope it doesn't," he stated. "That's racing, you know. Sometimes you get lucky. You can also be unlucky. Whatever it may be. It's no point becoming overjoyed or thinking about it. I continue to view it as something that remains distant."

Norris has discovered his best form at a critical juncture—having struggled with the car in the first part of the season—at the same time that Piastri has shed the disciplined, almost flawless composure that previously made him seem to be a future title winner. Importantly, Norris kept a impressive level of equanimity throughout, insisting even in the face of setbacks—such as his retirement from the Dutch GP—that he would stick to his strategy and approach every outing with the same unwavering attention to detail. It has paid off.

Meanwhile, the team have worked hard to try to preserve a level playing field for their pair of racers, and it has at times been a rather difficult experience, most notably at the Italian Grand Prix when the team instructed Piastri to surrender second place to Norris after he had lost the spot due to a delayed tire change. Certain spectators were unhappy with what was considered the team needlessly interfering with their drivers.

The championship leader has won the previous pair of races, in Mexico City and São Paulo, and was jeered on the podium at each, yet he remained unmoved. "When you're on top, a lot of individuals want to undermine you. They don't like seeing you winning. I see it as a good thing," he remarked.

"It just makes me laugh. While standing on the winner's stage in Brazil, I truly enjoyed it. It was very satisfying. You finally feel like you're doing something right.

"It doesn't bother me, as long as I come out on top. As long as I feel like I'm doing it the correct way, which I feel like that's the case, so long as I feel like I am dedicating hard work into remaining true to myself and those kinds of things, then I am not concerned about external opinions."

Vegas, on the other hand, must be mastered, and it is a circuit ideal for the British team. The layout has similarities with Canada and Baku: minimal aerodynamic grip, cool temperatures, and slippery surfaces. These are the sole pair of tracks in the current championship where the papaya squad have been unable to claim a single top-three finish, and Norris was cautious once more about their prospects this weekend. Yet, his task in the short term is straightforward: finish in front of Piastri and the points he requires will follow.

Friday Running Shows Varied Outcomes for Championship Contenders

The Ferrari driver led the times in first practice on what was still a dusty and extremely slippery surface. Alex Albon was runner-up, with Verstappen in fourth, the McLaren ace sixth, and Piastri in eighth. During the more indicative night running of FP2, the Briton was fastest from the Silver Arrows of Kimi Antonelli, with his teammate 14th; however, the practice lost almost all of the last third of track time to inspect a reported unsecured manhole cover at the penultimate corner.

This problem is taken seriously on a street circuit where, at the first Las Vegas GP held in 2023, a loose manhole smashed into the Ferrari, heavily damaging it and causing the session to be ended.

Mercedes Confirm Ownership Transaction

The eight-time constructors' champions have revealed that their team principal Toto Wolff has divested a 15% stake in his investment firm, representing a five percent ownership in the team, to American billionaire George Kurtz. The investor is the CEO and founder of the cybersecurity company the tech giant. The team principal will stay on as boss and may receive as much as £230m from the deal, with Mercedes having been valued at £4.57bn, a record for an Formula 1 constructor.