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

The British driver currently has a 24-point advantage over teammate Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by 49 points, with just a maximum of 83 points up for grabs across the remaining trio of events. But, after staging a remarkable recovery from a significant deficit his teammate after the Dutch Grand Prix in August, Norris is concentrating on performing with the clinical precision that propelled him to the lead of the standings.

"Things can quickly turn in the other direction again even though I hope it doesn't," he stated. "That's motorsport, you know. Sometimes you also have luck. You can end up unlucky. No matter what happens. There's really not worth getting excited or thinking about it. I continue to view it as a goal that's quite far away."

Norris has discovered his best form at a critical moment—after difficulties with the vehicle in the opening half of the campaign—at the same time that Piastri has lost the controlled, almost flawless composure that previously made him seem to be a future title winner. Notably, Norris maintained a remarkable level of equanimity all along, insisting even in the face of setbacks—such as his withdrawal from the Zandvoort race—that he would adhere to his gameplan and work every outing with the same relentless attention to detail. This approach has yielded results.

All the while, McLaren have gone to no little effort to try to maintain a level playing field for their pair of racers, and it has at times been a rather torturous experience, most notably at Monza when the squad instructed Piastri to surrender second place to Norris after he had fallen behind due to a slow pit stop. Certain spectators were unhappy with what was seen as McLaren unnecessarily interfering with their competitors.

Norris has won the last two races, in Mexico and São Paulo, and was booed on the podium at each, yet he remained unmoved. "Once you are leading, many individuals want to undermine you. They don't like seeing you succeeding. I consider it a positive sign," he remarked.

"It just amuses me. While standing on the podium in Interlagos, I really loved it. It was very enjoyable. You finally feel like you're doing success.

"I don't mind, provided that I come out on top. As long as I feel like I'm doing it the right way, which I feel like that's the case, as long as I am confident I'm putting effort into being who I am and those kinds of things, then I'm not too fussed with the rest of it."

Vegas, on the other hand, needs to be mastered, and it is a circuit ideal for the McLaren. The layout has characteristics with Canada and Azerbaijan: low downforce, cool temperatures, and low grip. These are the only two tracks this season where the papaya squad have failed to secure at least one top-three finish, and Norris was cautious again about their chances this weekend. Yet, his task in the short term is simple: end the race in ahead of Piastri and the championship tally he needs will come.

Friday Running Shows Varied Outcomes for Championship Contenders

The Ferrari driver led the times in FP1 on what was still a dusty and extremely low-grip surface. Alex Albon was second, with Verstappen in fourth, Norris in P6, and the Australian eighth. In the more indicative evening session of FP2, Norris was fastest from the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, with Piastri down in fourteenth; though, the session was interrupted for almost all of the last third of track time to check a reported unsecured drain cover at the penultimate corner.

The issue is taken seriously on a temporary track where, at the first Las Vegas GP staged in 2023, a dislodged drain cover struck the Ferrari, heavily harming it and causing the practice to be ended.

Mercedes Announce Stake Sale

Mercedes have revealed that their boss the Austrian executive has sold a 15% stake in his investment firm, representing a 5% share in the squad, to US tycoon George Kurtz. Kurtz is the CEO and founder of the digital protection firm CrowdStrike. Wolff will remain as boss and may receive as much as £230 million from the deal, with the Brackley-based outfit having been appraised at £4.57 billion, a record for an Formula 1 constructor.