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Despite the hype around the Sin City Grand Prix, Lando Norris is maintaining a calm demeanor about his chances of claiming his first world title.

Norris currently holds 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 final three events. But, after staging a remarkable comeback from 34 points behind his teammate after the Zandvoort race in the summer, Norris is focused on performing with the clinical precision that propelled him to the top of the championship.

"It can easily turn the opposite way once more even though I hope it doesn't," he stated. "That's motorsport, you know. Sometimes you also have luck. Other times you also be unlucky. No matter what happens. It's no point getting excited or thinking about it. I still do see it as a goal that remains far away."

Norris has found his best form at a crucial moment—after difficulties with the vehicle in the first part of the season—while Piastri has shed the controlled, nearly perfect composure that had for so long made him appear to be a champion in waiting. Importantly, Norris kept a remarkable level of equanimity throughout, asserting despite setbacks—like his withdrawal from the Zandvoort race—that he would adhere to his gameplan and work every outing with the same unwavering attention to detail. This approach has yielded results.

All the while, the team have worked hard to try to maintain a fair competition for their two drivers, and it has at times been a rather torturous process, most notably at the Italian Grand Prix when the team directed the Australian to surrender the runner-up spot to his teammate after he had lost the spot because of a slow pit stop. Some fans were unhappy with what was considered the team unnecessarily manipulating their drivers.

The championship leader has claimed victory in the last two races, in Mexico and Brazil, and was jeered on the podium at each, yet he remained unfazed. "Once you are on top, a lot of people want to undermine you. They do not like seeing you succeeding. I see it as a positive sign," he said.

"It amuses me. While standing on the podium in Interlagos, I truly loved it. The experience was very satisfying. At last you feel like you're doing success.

"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 that's the case, so long as I am confident I'm putting effort into being who I am and similar principles, then I am not concerned about the rest of it."

Vegas, on the other hand, must be conquered, and it is a circuit ideal for the British team. The layout has characteristics with Canada and Azerbaijan: low downforce, cool temperatures, and low grip. They are the only two circuits in the current championship where McLaren have failed to claim a single top-three finish, and the leader was cautious once more about their prospects in Nevada. Yet, his task in the short term is simple: end the race in ahead of his teammate and the points he needs will come.

Practice Sees Mixed Results for Championship Contenders

Charles Leclerc led the leaderboard in FP1 on what was remained a sandy and very low-grip track. Alex Albon was runner-up, with the Red Bull star in fourth, the McLaren ace sixth, and the Australian eighth. In the more representative night running of second practice, the Briton was fastest from the Silver Arrows of Kimi Antonelli, with Piastri down in fourteenth; though, the practice lost almost all of the last third of running to check a suspected unsecured manhole cover at the penultimate corner.

The issue is treated with caution on a temporary track where, at the inaugural Nevada GP staged in 2023, a loose drain cover smashed into the Ferrari, heavily damaging it and leading to the session to be aborted.

Mercedes Announce Ownership Sale

The eight-time constructors' champions have confirmed that their team principal Toto Wolff has divested a 15% stake in his investment firm, representing a 5% share in the squad, to US tycoon George Kurtz. Kurtz is the chief executive and creator of the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. The team principal will stay on as boss and may receive up to £230m from the deal, with Mercedes having been appraised at £4.57bn, a record for an F1 team.