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Despite the hype surrounding the Sin City Grand Prix, Lando Norris is keeping a calm demeanor about his prospects of securing his first drivers' championship.

Norris presently has a two-dozen point lead over teammate Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by 49 points, with just up to eighty-three points available across the remaining trio of events. But, after staging a extraordinary comeback from 34 points behind Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix in August, Norris is focused on executing with the methodical approach that propelled him to the lead of the standings.

"It can quickly turn the opposite way again even though I don't want it to," he commented. "That's motorsport, you know. You can get lucky. Other times you also be unlucky. Whatever it may be. It's no point getting excited or dwelling on it. I continue to view it as a goal that's quite far away."

Norris has discovered his peak performance at a crucial moment—after difficulties with the vehicle in the first part of the campaign—at the same time that his teammate has lost the disciplined, nearly perfect ease that had for so long made him seem to be a champion in waiting. Notably, Norris kept a impressive level of equanimity all along, asserting despite challenges—such as his retirement from the Zandvoort race—that he would stick to his gameplan and work each session with the same relentless attention to detail. This approach has paid off.

Meanwhile, the team have worked hard to attempt to preserve a level playing field for their pair of racers, and it has on occasion been a rather torturous experience, especially at the Italian Grand Prix when the team instructed the Australian to surrender second place to his teammate following he had fallen behind due to a slow pit stop. Some fans did not take well to what was considered McLaren needlessly manipulating their drivers.

Norris has won the previous pair of grands prix, in Mexico City and Brazil, and was booed on the winner's rostrum at each, yet he remained unfazed. "Once you are leading, many people want to undermine you. They don't want to see you winning. I consider it a good thing," he remarked.

"It amuses me. While standing on the winner's stage in Interlagos, I really enjoyed it. It was very enjoyable. At last you feel like you are achieving something right.

"It doesn't bother me, provided that I come out on top. If I believe I am competing the right way, and I think 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 the rest of it."

Vegas, meanwhile, must be conquered, and it is not a track suited to the McLaren. The layout has similarities with Montreal and Azerbaijan: low downforce, chilly conditions, and low grip. These are the sole pair of tracks in the current championship where McLaren have been unable to secure at least one podium place, and the leader was circumspect once more about their chances in Nevada. Still, his objective in the short term is straightforward: finish in ahead of Piastri and the points he requires will follow.

Practice Sees Mixed Results for Title Rivals

Charles Leclerc topped the times in FP1 on what was remained a dusty and extremely slippery track. The Williams racer was runner-up, with the Red Bull star in fourth, the McLaren ace in P6, and the Australian eighth. In the more representative evening session of FP2, Norris was quickest from the Mercedes of the Italian rookie, with his teammate 14th; however, the practice lost almost all of the final 20 minutes of track time to inspect a reported loose drain cover at turn 17.

This problem is taken seriously on a temporary track where, at the first Las Vegas GP held in 2023, a loose manhole struck the Ferrari, heavily damaging it and causing the practice to be ended.

Mercedes Announce Stake Sale

The eight-time constructors' champions have confirmed that their boss the Austrian executive has sold a 15% stake in his investment firm, equating to a 5% share in the squad, to American billionaire George Kurtz. Kurtz is the CEO and founder of the digital protection firm the tech giant. The team principal will remain as team principal and could earn as much as £230 million from the sale, with Mercedes having been valued at £4.57bn, a new high for an F1 team.