Las Vegas (AFP) - Formula One world champion Max Verstappen produced a masterful drive to win the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday as McLaren’s Lando Norris finished second to edge closer to a maiden drivers’ title.

Red Bull ace Verstappen pounced on a slip by pole-sitter Norris on the first turn of Sin City’s street circuit to grab the lead and controlled the race thereafter to claim the 69th Grand Prix win of his career, finishing more than 20 seconds clear.

Britain’s Norris tightened his grip on the season standings, with his second place leaving him on 408 points with two races remaining, 30 clear of team-mate Oscar Piastri, who finished fourth. Mercedes’ George Russell was third.

After the drama of Friday’s qualifying, when heavy rain made for a treacherous surface that Verstappen likened to driving on ice, Saturday’s 50-lap race under the glittering lights of Las Vegas got under way in cool, dry conditions.

Verstappen, who could mathematically still win a fifth consecutive title after a result that leaves him 42 points behind Norris with two races remaining, was quick to exploit the improved weather.

Norris, who had arrived in Vegas fresh from back-to-back wins in Mexico and Sao Paulo, attempted an aggressive move to block Verstappen right from the start.

The move backfired and Norris ran off the track and allowed Verstappen to grab first place. Norris dropped back to third after he was passed by Russell into second.

- Norris ‘Too punchy’ -

“I made the mistake into turn one,” Norris said.

“You know you’ve got to be punchy into turn one, but I was just a bit too punchy and that cost me.

“But second is still a good result, good points. It’s not like I’m too disappointed.

“I went for it, I let Max have a win, let him go and have a nice race.

“I wanted to put on a show right, that’s why we’re here in Vegas. It was not my best performance. But when a guy wins by 20 seconds it’s because he’s done a good job out there.”

Verstappen said Red Bull’s tyre strategy had laid the foundation for the win.

“Normally the race is always a tough one for us, we are not normally that great on tyres, but today it seemed like we were more in control and I could push a little bit more,” he said.

“We had a lot more pace and I could stay out a little bit longer and split the race in half and that definitely helped a lot.

“The car was working pretty well, much more to my liking and at the end it was quite a decent lap. Every lap I was just feeling comfortable and not taking too much out of the tyre.”

While Verstappen has an outside chance of the title, he acknowledged that catching Norris over the final two legs in Qatar and Abu Dhabi would be difficult.

“It’s still a big gap, we always try and maximise everything we’ve got,” Verstappen said.

“We’ve had an up-and-down season and tough times, but also some really beautiful moments. We learnt a lot throughout the whole season and that’s always very valuable for the upcoming years.”

Norris’s McLaren team-mate Piastri, who began in fifth place on the grid, was also ruing a challenging start which saw him bump wheels with RB’s Liam Lawson.

“I was one of the only people that braked to make the corner and got barged out of the way,” Piastri said.

“It is what it is. The rest of the race was eventful after that as well, just a few too many mistakes.”

Piastri had been desperately looking to make up ground in Vegas after surrendering a 34-point advantage in the drivers championship since his victory at the Dutch Grand Prix in August.

But the 24-year-old from Melbourne acknowledged that his hopes of catching Norris had taken a blow after Saturday’s race.

Asked if he was confident of cutting into Norris’s lead in Qatar, Piastri replied: “Hopefully. But I obviously need more than that now.

“It would be nice to get some good results to finish the year, but the championship picture is what it is.”