🔗 Share this article

Amid the excitement around the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lando Norris is maintaining a level head regarding his chances of claiming his first world title.

Norris presently holds a two-dozen point advantage over teammate Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by nearly fifty points, with only a maximum of eighty-three points up for grabs across the final three races. But, after pulling off a remarkable recovery from 34 points behind Piastri 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.

"It can quickly turn in the other direction once more as much as I don't want it to," he commented. "That's racing, you know. You can also have luck. Other times you end up unlucky. No matter what happens. There's really not worth getting excited or thinking about it. I still do see it as something that's quite far away."

The 26-year-old has discovered his peak performance at a crucial juncture—having struggled with the car in the opening half of the campaign—while his teammate has shed the disciplined, nearly perfect ease that had for so long made him appear to be a champion in waiting. Notably, Norris kept a remarkable level of composure throughout, asserting even in the face of challenges—like his withdrawal from the Zandvoort race—that he would adhere to his gameplan and approach every outing with the identical unwavering focus on specifics. It has yielded results.

All the while, McLaren have gone to no little effort to attempt to preserve a level playing field for their pair of racers, and it has at times been something of torturous experience, most notably at the Italian Grand Prix when the team directed the Australian to surrender the runner-up spot to his teammate following he had fallen behind because of a slow pit stop. Some fans did not take well to what was considered McLaren needlessly manipulating their drivers.

The championship leader has claimed victory in the last two grands prix, in Mexico and Brazil, and was booed on the podium at both, leaving him unmoved. "Once you are leading, a lot of people want to bring you down. They do not want to see you winning. I see it as a positive sign," he said.

"It just makes me laugh. When I was on the podium in Interlagos, I really enjoyed it. It was quite satisfying. At last you sense that you are achieving success.

"It doesn't bother me, provided that I win. As long as I feel like I am competing the correct way, which I feel like that's the case, as long as I feel like I am dedicating hard work into being who I am and those kinds of things, then I am not concerned about the rest of it."

Las Vegas, on the other hand, must be conquered, and it is not a track suited to the McLaren. The layout has similarities with Montreal and Baku: minimal aerodynamic grip, cool temperatures, and slippery surfaces. They are the sole pair of tracks this season where the papaya squad have been unable to secure a single top-three finish, and the leader was cautious once more about their chances in Nevada. Still, his objective in the immediate future is simple: end the race in ahead of Piastri and the points he requires will come.

Friday Running Sees Varied Outcomes for Title Contenders

The Ferrari driver topped the times in FP1 on what was remained a dusty and very slippery surface. The Williams racer was runner-up, with the Red Bull star in fourth, Norris in P6, and the Australian eighth. In the more indicative evening session of FP2, Norris was fastest ahead of the Mercedes of the Italian rookie, with his teammate 14th; however, the practice was interrupted for almost all of the final 20 minutes of running to check a reported unsecured manhole cover at the penultimate corner.

The issue is taken seriously on a temporary track where, at the first Las Vegas GP held in 2023, a loose manhole smashed into the Ferrari, heavily harming it and causing the session to be aborted.

Mercedes Confirm Stake Sale

The eight-time constructors' champions have revealed that their boss the Austrian executive has sold a 15% stake in his investment firm, representing a five percent ownership in the team, to American billionaire George Kurtz. Kurtz is the CEO and founder of the digital protection firm CrowdStrike. The team principal will remain as boss and could earn as much as £230m from the sale, with the Brackley-based outfit having been valued at £4.57 billion, a new high for an Formula 1 constructor.