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Amid all excitement around the Sin City Grand Prix, Lando Norris is keeping a level head regarding his prospects of claiming his first drivers' championship.

The British driver currently has a two-dozen point advantage over fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by nearly fifty points, with just a maximum of 83 points up for grabs across the final three races. But, after staging a remarkable recovery from a significant deficit his teammate after the Zandvoort race in August, Norris is focused on performing with the clinical precision that propelled him to the lead of the standings.

"Things can quickly go in the other direction again as much as I don't want it to," he stated. "That's motorsport, you know. Sometimes you also have luck. You can also be unlucky. Whatever it may be. It's no point getting excited or thinking about it. I still view it as a goal that's quite distant."

The 26-year-old has discovered his best form at a crucial juncture—having struggled with the vehicle in the opening half of the season—while his teammate has shed the controlled, nearly flawless composure that had for so long made him seem to be a champion in waiting. Notably, Norris kept a impressive level of composure throughout, asserting even in the face of challenges—such as his withdrawal from the Zandvoort race—that he would adhere to his strategy and work every outing with the same relentless focus on specifics. This approach has paid off.

All the while, the team have worked hard to try to maintain a fair competition for their pair of racers, and it has on occasion been a rather difficult process, especially at the Italian Grand Prix when the team instructed the Australian to surrender the runner-up spot to his teammate after he had lost the spot because of a slow pit stop. Certain spectators were unhappy with what was seen as the team needlessly manipulating their drivers.

The championship leader has claimed victory in the previous pair of grands prix, in Mexico City and São Paulo, and was jeered on the podium at both, leaving him unfazed. "Once you are on top, many people want to bring you down. They don't like seeing you winning. I see it as a positive sign," he said.

"It just amuses me. When I was on the winner's stage in Interlagos, I truly loved it. The experience was very enjoyable. At last you feel like 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 am confident I'm putting effort into being who I am and those kinds of things, then I'm not too fussed about the rest of it."

Las Vegas, meanwhile, must be conquered, and it is not a track suited to the British team. It shares similarities with Canada and Baku: minimal aerodynamic grip, cool temperatures, and slippery surfaces. They are the only two tracks this season where McLaren have been unable to secure at least one podium place, and Norris was cautious again about their chances this weekend. Yet, his task in the short term is straightforward: finish in ahead of his teammate and the championship tally he needs will come.

Friday Running Sees Varied Results for Title Contenders

Charles Leclerc led the leaderboard in FP1 on what was remained a dusty and very low-grip surface. The Williams racer was second, with Verstappen fourth, Norris in P6, and the Australian in eighth. During the more indicative evening session of second practice, the Briton was fastest from the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, with Piastri down in fourteenth; however, the session lost almost all of the final 20 minutes of track time to check a reported loose drain cover at the penultimate corner.

This problem is taken seriously on a street circuit where, at the first Nevada GP held in 2023, a loose drain cover struck Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, heavily damaging it and leading to the session to be aborted.

Mercedes Confirm Ownership Transaction

The eight-time constructors' champions have revealed that their team principal the Austrian executive has sold a 15% stake in his investment firm, representing a five percent ownership in the team, to US tycoon George Kurtz. The investor is the CEO and founder of the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. The team principal will stay on as boss and may receive as much as £230m from the sale, with the Brackley-based outfit having been valued at £4.57bn, a record for an F1 team.