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Despite the hype around the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lando Norris is maintaining a level head about his chances of claiming his maiden world title.

The British driver currently has a 24-point advantage over fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by 49 points, with just up to eighty-three points up for grabs across the final three races. However, after staging a remarkable comeback from a significant deficit his teammate following the Dutch Grand Prix in the summer, Norris is focused on performing with the clinical precision that lifted him to the top of the championship.

"Things can easily turn in the other direction once more as much as I hope it doesn't," he commented. "That's motorsport, you know. Sometimes you get lucky. You can also be unlucky. Whatever it may be. There's really no point getting excited or thinking about it. I still view it as something that remains distant."

The 26-year-old has discovered his peak performance at a crucial juncture—after difficulties with the car in the first part of the campaign—while Piastri has shed the controlled, almost flawless composure that previously made him seem to be a future title winner. Importantly, Norris kept a remarkable level of composure all along, insisting despite setbacks—like his retirement from the Zandvoort race—that he would adhere to his gameplan and approach every outing with the identical relentless focus on specifics. This approach has paid off.

Meanwhile, the team have gone to no little effort to attempt to maintain a fair competition for their pair of racers, and it has at times been something of difficult experience, most notably at Monza when the team instructed the Australian to surrender second place to his teammate following he had lost the spot because of a delayed tire change. Some fans did not take well to what was seen as McLaren unnecessarily manipulating their drivers.

Norris has won the last two grands prix, in Mexico City and São Paulo, and was jeered on the winner's rostrum at each, leaving him unmoved. "Once you are on top, a lot of individuals try to bring you down. They do not like seeing you winning. I consider it a positive sign," he remarked.

"It just amuses me. While standing on the winner's stage in Interlagos, I really enjoyed it. It was quite satisfying. You finally feel like you are achieving something right.

"I don't mind, as long as I win. As long as I feel like I'm doing it the right way, which I feel like I am, so 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 external opinions."

Las Vegas, meanwhile, must be conquered, and it is not a track suited to the British team. It shares characteristics with Canada and Azerbaijan: low downforce, cool temperatures, and low grip. These are the sole pair of tracks in the current championship where the papaya squad have failed to claim at least one podium place, and the leader was circumspect once more about their prospects this weekend. Still, his task in the short term is straightforward: end the race in front of Piastri and the championship tally he requires will follow.

Friday Running Shows Varied Outcomes for Title Contenders

The Ferrari driver topped the leaderboard in FP1 on what was remained a sandy and very low-grip surface. Alex Albon was second, with the Red Bull star fourth, Norris sixth, and the Australian eighth. In the more indicative night running of second practice, Norris was fastest ahead of the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, with Piastri 14th; however, the practice lost almost all of the last third of running to inspect a reported loose manhole cover at turn 17.

The issue is taken seriously on a temporary track where, at the inaugural Las Vegas GP held in 2023, a dislodged drain cover struck the Ferrari, heavily damaging it and causing the session to be ended.

Mercedes Announce Ownership Sale

Mercedes have revealed that their team principal Toto Wolff has sold a 15% stake in his holding company, representing a five percent ownership in the squad, to American billionaire George Kurtz. Kurtz is the CEO and founder of the cybersecurity company the tech giant. The team principal will stay on as team principal and may receive up to £230 million from the deal, with Mercedes having been valued at £4.57bn, a new high for an F1 team.