‘I still see title as quite distant’: F1 leader Norris not hedging bets for Las Vegas GP

Lando Norris topped the standings after the curtailed second practice session in Las Vegas, a circuit not best suited to the McLaren. Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

For all the sound and fury of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lando Norris is refusing to get excited about the prospect of putting one hand on a first drivers’ championship trophy in Sin City.

Norris leads his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri by 24 points in the title race and Max Verstappen by 49 with a maximum of only 83 on the table over the three remaining meetings. But with the 26-year-old Briton having wrought an extraordinary comeback from 34 points behind Piastri after August’s Dutch Grand Prix, he is determined to focus on executing with the clinical calm that has put him into the lead in the standings, not the potential outcome of the race.