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Despite all hype surrounding the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lando Norris is keeping a level head regarding his chances of securing his first drivers' championship.

The British driver presently has a two-dozen point advantage over teammate Oscar Piastri and leads Max Verstappen by nearly fifty points, with just a maximum of 83 points available across the remaining trio of events. However, after staging a extraordinary recovery from a significant deficit Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix in August, Norris is concentrating on performing with the methodical approach that lifted him to the lead of the championship.

"It can easily turn in the other direction again even though I don't want it to," he stated. "That's racing, as we all know. You can get lucky. You can also be unfortunate. No matter what happens. It's not worth getting excited or dwelling on it. I still view it as a goal that's quite far away."

Norris has discovered his best form at a critical moment—having struggled with the car in the opening half of the campaign—while his teammate has shed the disciplined, nearly flawless composure that previously made him appear to be a champion in waiting. Notably, Norris kept a remarkable level of equanimity all along, insisting despite setbacks—such as his withdrawal from the Zandvoort race—that he would adhere to his strategy and work each session with the same relentless attention to detail. This approach has yielded results.

All the while, the team have worked hard to try to preserve a fair competition for their pair of racers, and it has at times been a rather torturous process, most notably at the Italian Grand Prix when the team directed Piastri to cede the runner-up spot to his teammate after he had fallen behind because of a delayed tire change. Certain spectators were unhappy with what was considered the team unnecessarily manipulating their drivers.

Norris has won the last two races, in Mexico City and São Paulo, and was jeered on the podium at each, leaving him unfazed. "Once you are leading, a lot of people want to undermine you. They do not like seeing you succeeding. I consider it a good thing," he said.

"It makes me laugh. When I was on the winner's stage in Brazil, I really enjoyed it. The experience was very enjoyable. At last you feel like you're doing something right.

"It doesn't bother me, as long as I come out on top. As long as I feel like I am competing the right manner, which I feel like that's the case, so long as I feel like I am dedicating hard work into remaining true to myself and those kinds of things, then I'm not too fussed with the rest of it."

Las Vegas, on the other hand, needs to be mastered, and it is a circuit suited to the British team. The layout has characteristics with Canada and Baku: low downforce, cool temperatures, and slippery surfaces. They are the only two circuits this season where McLaren have been unable to claim a single podium place, and the leader was circumspect once more about their chances this weekend. Still, his objective in the short term is simple: finish in front of his teammate and the points he requires will follow.

Practice Sees Mixed Outcomes for Championship Contenders

Charles Leclerc led the leaderboard in first practice on what was still a dusty and extremely slippery surface. The Williams racer was runner-up, with the Red Bull star in fourth, the McLaren ace sixth, and Piastri eighth. During the more indicative evening session of second practice, the Briton was fastest from the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, with his teammate 14th; though, the practice lost almost all of the final 20 minutes of track time to check a reported loose drain cover at turn 17.

This problem is treated with caution on a temporary track where, at the first Las Vegas GP staged in 2023, a dislodged drain cover smashed into the Ferrari, heavily damaging it and causing the session to be aborted.

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 team, to American billionaire the cybersecurity magnate. The investor is the chief executive and creator of the digital protection firm the tech giant. The team principal will remain as boss and could earn as much as £230m from the deal, with Mercedes having been appraised at £4.57 billion, a record for an F1 team.