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Despite the excitement surrounding the Las Vegas Grand Prix, McLaren's lead driver is keeping a level head about his prospects of claiming his first world title.

Norris currently holds a 24-point lead over teammate Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by 49 points, with only up to 83 points up for grabs across the final three races. However, after pulling off a remarkable recovery from 34 points behind his teammate after the Dutch Grand Prix in August, Norris is concentrating on performing with the clinical precision that propelled him to the top of the championship.

"Things can quickly go the opposite way again as much as I don't want it to," he commented. "That's motorsport, as we all know. You can get lucky. You can end up unlucky. No matter what happens. There's really not worth becoming overjoyed or dwelling on it. I still do see it as a goal that remains far away."

Norris has found his peak performance at a critical juncture—after difficulties with the car in the opening half of the season—while his teammate has lost the controlled, nearly perfect ease that had for so long made him seem to be a future title winner. Notably, Norris kept a impressive level of composure all along, insisting even in the face of setbacks—such as his retirement from the Dutch GP—that he would adhere to his gameplan and approach every outing with the same unwavering attention to detail. It has paid off.

Meanwhile, McLaren have worked hard to try to maintain a fair competition for their pair of racers, and it has at times been something of difficult process, most notably at Monza when the team instructed Piastri to surrender second place to his teammate following he had lost the spot because of a delayed tire change. Certain spectators did not take well to what was seen as the team unnecessarily manipulating their competitors.

Norris has claimed victory in the last two races, in Mexico and São Paulo, and was jeered on the podium at both, leaving him unmoved. "When you're leading, many people want to undermine you. They do not want to see you winning. I consider it a positive sign," he said.

"It just amuses me. While standing on the podium in Brazil, I truly loved it. The experience was quite enjoyable. You finally sense that you're doing something right.

"It doesn't bother me, as long as I win. As long as I believe I'm doing it the right manner, which I feel like that's the case, so long as I feel like I'm putting hard work into being who I am and those kinds of things, then I'm not too fussed about external opinions."

Vegas, on the other hand, needs to be conquered, and it is a circuit suited to the British team. The layout has characteristics with Canada and Azerbaijan: low downforce, chilly conditions, and slippery surfaces. They are the only two tracks in the current championship where McLaren have failed to claim at least one podium place, and the leader was circumspect again about their prospects this weekend. Yet, his task in the immediate future is simple: finish in ahead of Piastri and the championship tally he requires will come.

Practice Shows Varied Outcomes for Title Rivals

Charles Leclerc topped the leaderboard in first practice on what was still a dusty and extremely slippery track. The Williams racer was runner-up, with Verstappen fourth, Norris in P6, and the Australian in eighth. In the more representative night running of FP2, Norris was fastest ahead of the Silver Arrows of Kimi Antonelli, with Piastri down in fourteenth; though, the practice was interrupted for nearly the final 20 minutes of running to check a reported unsecured manhole cover at the penultimate corner.

This problem is taken seriously on a temporary track where, at the inaugural Las Vegas GP held in 2023, a dislodged drain cover smashed into the Ferrari, severely damaging it and leading to the practice to be ended.

Mercedes Confirm Stake Sale

The eight-time constructors' champions have confirmed that their team principal Toto Wolff has sold a 15% stake in his holding company, representing a 5% share in the team, to US tycoon the cybersecurity magnate. Kurtz is the chief executive and creator of the digital protection firm the tech giant. The team principal will stay on as team principal and may receive up to £230 million from the deal, with Mercedes having been appraised at £4.57bn, a new high for an F1 team.