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Despite all excitement around the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lando Norris is maintaining a calm demeanor regarding his chances of claiming his maiden drivers' championship.

Norris currently has a 24-point lead over fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and leads Max Verstappen by 49 points, with just a maximum of 83 points up for grabs across the remaining trio of events. However, after pulling off a remarkable recovery from 34 points behind his teammate following the Zandvoort race in August, Norris is focused on performing with the methodical approach that propelled him to the lead of the standings.

"It can easily turn the opposite way once more as much as I hope it doesn't," he stated. "That's motorsport, as we all know. You can get lucky. Other times you end up unlucky. Whatever it may be. There's really not worth becoming overjoyed or dwelling on it. I continue to do see it as something that remains distant."

The 26-year-old has found his peak performance at a critical juncture—after difficulties with the car in the opening half of the season—while Piastri has shed the controlled, almost flawless composure that previously made him appear to be a future title winner. Importantly, Norris maintained a remarkable level of composure all along, asserting despite challenges—like his withdrawal from the Zandvoort race—that he would stick to his strategy and work each session with the identical relentless focus on specifics. It has yielded results.

All the while, the team have gone to no little effort to try to maintain a level playing field for their two drivers, and it has on occasion been something of difficult experience, most notably at the Italian Grand Prix when the squad instructed Piastri to surrender the runner-up spot to his teammate following he had lost the spot because of a slow pit stop. Certain spectators did not take well to what was considered the team unnecessarily interfering with their drivers.

Norris has won the last two races, in Mexico and São Paulo, and was jeered on the winner's rostrum at each, yet he remained unmoved. "Once you are on top, many people try to bring you down. They do not like seeing you succeeding. I consider it a good thing," he said.

"It amuses me. When I was on the winner's stage in Interlagos, I truly enjoyed it. The experience was very satisfying. At last you feel like you are achieving success.

"I don't mind, provided that I win. As long as I believe I'm doing it the right way, and I think that's the case, as long as I feel like I'm putting hard work into being who I am and similar principles, then I'm not too fussed with external opinions."

Las Vegas, meanwhile, needs to be conquered, and it is not a track suited to the McLaren. It shares similarities with Canada and Azerbaijan: low downforce, cool temperatures, and slippery surfaces. They are the sole pair of circuits this season where McLaren have failed to secure at least one podium place, and the leader was circumspect once more about their chances this weekend. Still, his task in the immediate future is straightforward: finish in ahead of his teammate and the championship tally he needs will come.

Friday Running Shows Varied Outcomes for Title Rivals

The Ferrari driver led the leaderboard in first practice on what was still a sandy and extremely slippery surface. Alex Albon was second, with Verstappen fourth, Norris in P6, and the Australian eighth. In the more representative evening session of second practice, Norris was fastest from the Silver Arrows of the Italian rookie, with Piastri down in fourteenth; however, the practice was interrupted for nearly the last third of track time to check a reported unsecured drain cover at turn 17.

This problem is treated with caution on a temporary track where, at the first Las Vegas GP held in 2023, a loose manhole smashed into the Ferrari, heavily harming it and causing the practice to be aborted.

The German Team Confirm Stake Sale

The eight-time constructors' champions have revealed that their boss the Austrian executive has sold a fifteen percent share in his holding company, equating to a five percent ownership in the team, to American billionaire the cybersecurity magnate. Kurtz is the chief executive and creator of the cybersecurity company the tech giant. Wolff will remain as boss and could earn as much as £230 million from the deal, with Mercedes having been appraised at £4.57 billion, a new high for an Formula 1 constructor.