🔗 Share this article

Despite the excitement surrounding the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lando Norris is keeping a calm demeanor about his chances of claiming his first drivers' championship.

Norris presently has a two-dozen point advantage over teammate Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by nearly fifty points, with only a maximum of 83 points available across the remaining trio of races. But, after staging a remarkable comeback from a significant deficit Piastri following the Zandvoort race in August, Norris is focused on performing with the methodical approach that propelled him to the lead of the standings.

"It can quickly turn the opposite way once more even though I hope it doesn't," he commented. "That's motorsport, you know. Sometimes you also have luck. Other times you end up unfortunate. Whatever it may be. It's not worth getting excited or dwelling on it. I continue to do see it as a goal that's quite far away."

Norris has found his peak performance at a crucial moment—after difficulties with the car in the opening half of the campaign—while his teammate has lost the disciplined, almost flawless composure that had for so long made him seem to be a champion in waiting. Notably, Norris kept a remarkable level of equanimity throughout, asserting even in the face of setbacks—like his retirement from the Zandvoort race—that he would stick to his gameplan and work every outing with the identical unwavering focus on specifics. It has yielded results.

All the while, the team have worked hard to try to preserve a fair competition for their two drivers, and it has on occasion been a rather torturous process, especially at the Italian Grand Prix when the squad instructed the Australian to surrender the runner-up spot to Norris after he had fallen behind due to a slow pit stop. Certain spectators did not take well to what was considered McLaren needlessly manipulating their drivers.

Norris has won the previous pair of races, in Mexico and Brazil, and was booed on the winner's rostrum at each, leaving him unmoved. "Once you are on top, a lot of individuals try to undermine you. They do not like seeing you succeeding. I consider it a good thing," he remarked.

"It amuses me. While standing on the winner's stage in Brazil, I truly loved it. The experience was quite satisfying. You finally feel like you are achieving something right.

"It doesn't bother me, as long as I win. If I believe I am competing the correct manner, which I feel like that's the case, as long as I feel like I'm putting hard work into remaining true to myself and those kinds of things, then I'm not too fussed 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 similarities with Montreal and Azerbaijan: minimal aerodynamic grip, chilly conditions, and low grip. They are the only two circuits in the current championship where McLaren have failed to secure at least one top-three finish, and the leader was circumspect again about their prospects in Nevada. Yet, his task in the short term is straightforward: end the race in ahead of his teammate and the championship tally he requires will come.

Practice Shows Mixed Outcomes for Title Rivals

Charles Leclerc led the leaderboard in first practice on what was remained a sandy and very slippery surface. Alex Albon was second, with the Red Bull star in fourth, Norris in P6, and Piastri eighth. During the more representative evening session of FP2, the Briton was quickest ahead of the Silver Arrows of the Italian rookie, with his teammate 14th; though, the session lost nearly the final 20 minutes of running to check a suspected unsecured drain cover at turn 17.

This problem is taken seriously on a street circuit where, at the inaugural Nevada GP held in 2023, a dislodged drain cover smashed into Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, heavily harming it and leading to the practice to be aborted.

Mercedes Confirm Stake Sale

Mercedes have confirmed that their boss the Austrian executive has divested a fifteen percent share in his investment firm, representing a 5% share in the squad, to American billionaire George Kurtz. Kurtz is the CEO and founder of the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. The team principal will stay on as boss and may receive up to £230 million from the deal, with the Brackley-based outfit having been valued at £4.57 billion, a record for an Formula 1 constructor.