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

Norris presently holds a two-dozen point lead over teammate Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by nearly fifty points, with only a maximum of 83 points available across the remaining trio of races. But, after staging a remarkable comeback from 34 points behind his teammate after the Zandvoort race in August, Norris is focused on executing with the clinical precision that propelled him to the lead of the standings.

"Things can easily go the opposite way again as much as I hope it doesn't," he commented. "That's racing, you know. Sometimes you get lucky. You can also be unfortunate. No matter what happens. There's really not worth getting excited or dwelling on it. I still do see it as something that's quite distant."

Norris has discovered his best form at a critical moment—having struggled with the vehicle in the first part of the campaign—while his teammate has shed the controlled, almost flawless ease that previously made him seem to be a champion in waiting. Importantly, Norris maintained a remarkable level of composure all along, insisting even in the face of setbacks—such as his withdrawal from the Dutch GP—that he would adhere to his strategy and work every outing with the identical unwavering attention to detail. This approach has yielded results.

All the while, McLaren have worked hard to attempt to preserve a level playing field for their two drivers, and it has on occasion been something of difficult process, especially at the Italian Grand Prix when the squad directed the Australian to surrender the runner-up spot to his teammate after he had fallen behind because of a slow pit stop. Certain spectators were unhappy with what was seen as McLaren needlessly interfering with their competitors.

Norris has won the last two races, in Mexico City and São Paulo, and was jeered on the podium at both, leaving him unmoved. "Once you are on top, many people try to undermine you. They don't want to see you succeeding. I see it as a good thing," he remarked.

"It amuses me. While standing on the podium in Interlagos, I really enjoyed it. The experience was very enjoyable. At last you sense that you're doing success.

"It doesn't bother me, as long as I come out on top. If I feel like I'm doing it the correct manner, which I feel like I am, as long as I am confident I'm putting hard work into being who I am and similar principles, then I am not concerned about external opinions."

Las Vegas, meanwhile, needs to be mastered, and it is a circuit ideal for the British team. It shares characteristics with Montreal and Baku: low downforce, chilly conditions, and low grip. They are the only two tracks in the current championship where the papaya squad have failed to claim a single top-three finish, and Norris was circumspect again about their chances this weekend. Yet, his objective in the immediate future is straightforward: end the race in ahead of his teammate and the points he needs will follow.

Practice Sees Mixed Outcomes for Title Rivals

Charles Leclerc topped the leaderboard in first practice on what was still a dusty and very low-grip surface. Alex Albon was second, with the Red Bull star fourth, Norris sixth, and Piastri in eighth. During the more representative night running of FP2, the Briton was fastest ahead of the Silver Arrows of the Italian rookie, with his teammate down in fourteenth; though, the practice was interrupted for almost all of the final 20 minutes of track time to inspect a suspected loose manhole cover at the penultimate corner.

The issue is treated with caution on a street circuit where, at the first Nevada GP staged in 2023, a loose manhole smashed into Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, heavily harming it and causing the session to be ended.

The German Team Confirm Ownership Sale

Mercedes have revealed that their boss the Austrian executive has sold a fifteen percent share in his investment firm, representing a 5% share in the squad, to US tycoon the cybersecurity magnate. Kurtz is the CEO and founder of the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. The team principal will remain as boss and could earn as much as £230m from the sale, with Mercedes having been appraised at £4.57bn, a record for an F1 team.