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Despite the excitement around the Las Vegas Grand Prix, McLaren's lead driver is maintaining a level head about his chances of claiming his maiden drivers' championship.

Norris currently holds a 24-point lead over fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by 49 points, with just up to 83 points available across the final three races. But, after pulling off a remarkable recovery from a significant deficit Piastri following the Dutch Grand Prix in August, Norris is concentrating on executing with the clinical precision that propelled him to the top of the championship.

"It can easily go the opposite way again as much as I don't want it to," he commented. "That's racing, you know. You can get lucky. You can also be unlucky. Whatever it may be. There's really not worth getting excited or thinking about it. I still view it as a goal that's quite distant."

Norris has found his best form at a crucial juncture—having struggled with the car in the opening half of the season—while Piastri has shed the controlled, nearly flawless ease that previously made him appear to be a champion in waiting. Importantly, Norris kept a remarkable level of equanimity throughout, asserting despite setbacks—such as his retirement from the Zandvoort race—that he would adhere to his strategy and approach each session with the identical unwavering focus on specifics. It has paid off.

Meanwhile, the team have gone to no little effort to attempt to preserve a level playing field for their two drivers, and it has at times been a rather difficult process, most notably at the Italian Grand Prix when the team directed Piastri to surrender second place to his teammate following he had lost the spot due to a delayed tire change. Certain spectators did not take well to what was seen as the team unnecessarily interfering with their drivers.

The championship leader has claimed victory in the last two grands prix, in Mexico City and Brazil, and was jeered on the winner's rostrum at both, leaving him unmoved. "When you're leading, many people want to bring you down. They don't like seeing you winning. I consider it a good thing," he said.

"It just amuses me. While standing on the winner's stage in Interlagos, I really enjoyed it. It was very enjoyable. At last you sense that you're doing something right.

"It doesn't bother me, as long as I win. As long as I feel like I'm doing it the right manner, and I think I am, so long as I feel like I am dedicating effort into being who I am and those kinds of things, then I'm not too fussed with external opinions."

Vegas, meanwhile, 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. They are the sole pair of circuits in the current championship where the papaya squad have been unable to claim a single podium place, and the leader was cautious again about their prospects this weekend. Yet, his task in the immediate future is straightforward: finish in front of his teammate and the points he requires will follow.

Practice Sees Mixed Outcomes for Title Contenders

Charles Leclerc topped the times in FP1 on what was remained a sandy and very low-grip surface. The Williams racer was second, with the Red Bull star fourth, Norris sixth, and the Australian in eighth. During the more indicative evening session of FP2, the Briton was fastest from the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, with Piastri down in fourteenth; however, the session lost nearly the final 20 minutes of running to inspect a suspected unsecured manhole cover at the penultimate corner.

This problem is taken seriously on a street circuit where, at the inaugural Nevada GP staged in 2023, a dislodged drain cover smashed into the Ferrari, heavily harming it and leading to the session to be aborted.

Mercedes Announce Ownership Transaction

Mercedes have revealed that their team principal Toto Wolff has divested a 15% stake in his holding company, representing a five percent ownership in the team, to American billionaire George Kurtz. Kurtz is the CEO and founder of the digital protection firm the tech giant. Wolff will stay on as team principal and may receive as much as £230m from the deal, with Mercedes having been valued at £4.57bn, a new high for an Formula 1 constructor.