🔗 Share this article

Amid all hype around the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lando Norris is maintaining a calm demeanor regarding his chances of securing his maiden drivers' championship.

Norris currently has a two-dozen point lead over teammate Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by nearly fifty points, with only up to eighty-three points available across the remaining trio of events. But, after pulling off a extraordinary recovery from 34 points behind Piastri following the Dutch Grand Prix in August, Norris is concentrating on performing with the clinical precision 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 stated. "That's motorsport, you know. You can also have luck. Other times you end up unlucky. Whatever it may be. It's not worth getting excited or thinking about it. I still view it as a goal that remains distant."

Norris has found his best form at a critical juncture—after difficulties with the vehicle in the first part of the season—at the same time that his teammate has shed the controlled, nearly perfect ease that previously made him appear to be a champion in waiting. Importantly, Norris maintained a impressive level of composure all along, insisting even in the face of setbacks—like his retirement from the Zandvoort race—that he would stick to his gameplan and approach every outing with the identical relentless attention to detail. It has paid off.

All the while, McLaren have worked hard to attempt to maintain a level playing field for their two drivers, and it has at times been a rather torturous experience, especially at the Italian Grand Prix when the team directed Piastri to surrender second place to his teammate after he had lost the spot due to a slow pit stop. Some fans were unhappy with what was considered the team needlessly manipulating their drivers.

The championship leader has won the last two races, in Mexico City and São Paulo, and was booed on the winner's rostrum at both, yet he remained unfazed. "When you're leading, a lot of people want to undermine you. They don't like seeing you succeeding. I see it as a good thing," he remarked.

"It makes me laugh. While standing on the podium in Interlagos, I really enjoyed it. It was very satisfying. At last you sense that you're doing something right.

"I don't mind, provided that I come out on top. As long as I believe I'm doing it the right way, which I feel like I am, so long as I am confident I am dedicating effort into being who I am and those kinds of things, then I am not concerned with external opinions."

Vegas, on the other hand, must be mastered, and it is not a track ideal for the McLaren. The layout has similarities with Montreal and Baku: low downforce, cool temperatures, and low grip. They are the only two tracks this season where the papaya squad have failed to secure a single podium place, and Norris was cautious once more about their chances this weekend. Still, his objective in the immediate future is straightforward: end the race in front of his teammate and the points he requires will come.

Friday Running Sees Mixed Outcomes for Championship Rivals

The Ferrari driver topped the leaderboard in FP1 on what was remained a dusty and extremely low-grip track. The Williams racer was runner-up, with the Red Bull star in fourth, the McLaren ace in P6, and Piastri in eighth. During the more representative evening session of second practice, the Briton was fastest from the Silver Arrows of the Italian rookie, with Piastri 14th; though, the session lost nearly the final 20 minutes of running to inspect a reported loose manhole cover at turn 17.

This problem is treated with caution on a street circuit where, at the first Las Vegas GP staged in 2023, a loose manhole smashed into Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, severely damaging it and leading to the session to be ended.

The German Team Announce Stake Sale

The eight-time constructors' champions have revealed that their team principal Toto Wolff has sold a 15% stake in his investment firm, equating to a 5% share in the squad, to American billionaire the cybersecurity magnate. Kurtz is the chief executive and creator of the digital protection firm CrowdStrike. The team principal will remain as boss and may receive as much as £230m from the sale, with Mercedes having been valued at £4.57 billion, a record for an Formula 1 constructor.