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Amid the excitement around the Sin City Grand Prix, McLaren's lead driver is keeping a level head regarding his prospects of claiming his first drivers' championship.

The British driver presently has a 24-point advantage over fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and leads Max Verstappen by nearly fifty points, with only a maximum of 83 points up for grabs across the final three events. But, after pulling off a extraordinary comeback from a significant deficit his teammate after the Zandvoort race in the summer, Norris is concentrating on executing with the methodical approach that lifted him to the top of the standings.

"It can easily turn in the other direction again even though I hope it doesn't," he commented. "That's racing, as we all know. Sometimes you get lucky. You can also be unlucky. Whatever it may be. It's no point becoming overjoyed or dwelling on it. I still do see it as something that remains distant."

The 26-year-old has found his peak performance at a crucial juncture—after difficulties with the car in the opening half of the campaign—while his teammate has lost the disciplined, nearly perfect composure that previously made him appear to be a champion in waiting. Importantly, Norris kept a remarkable level of composure throughout, asserting even in the face of setbacks—such as his retirement from the Zandvoort race—that he would stick to his strategy and work each session with the identical unwavering attention to detail. This approach has yielded results.

All the while, the team have worked hard to try to preserve a fair competition for their two drivers, and it has on occasion been something of difficult experience, especially at the Italian Grand Prix when the team directed Piastri to cede the runner-up spot to his teammate following he had fallen behind because of a delayed tire change. Some fans did not take well to what was considered McLaren unnecessarily interfering with their drivers.

The championship leader has won the last two grands prix, in Mexico City and Brazil, and was booed on the podium at each, yet he remained unmoved. "When you're leading, many people want to bring you down. They don't like seeing you winning. I see it as a positive sign," he said.

"It makes me laugh. While standing on the winner's stage in Brazil, I really enjoyed it. The experience was very satisfying. You finally feel like you're doing success.

"It doesn't bother me, as long as I come out on top. If I believe I'm doing it the correct way, and I think I am, so long as I feel like I'm putting hard work into remaining true to myself and those kinds of things, then I'm not too fussed about external opinions."

Vegas, on the other hand, needs to be mastered, and it is not a track suited to the British team. It shares similarities with Canada and Azerbaijan: minimal aerodynamic grip, cool temperatures, and low grip. They are the sole pair of tracks in the current championship where the papaya squad have failed to secure a single podium place, and Norris was cautious once more about their prospects in Nevada. Yet, his task in the immediate future is straightforward: finish in ahead of Piastri and the championship tally he needs will come.

Practice Sees Mixed Outcomes for Title Contenders

The Ferrari driver led the times in first practice on what was still a dusty and very low-grip track. The Williams racer was second, with Verstappen in fourth, the McLaren ace in P6, and Piastri in eighth. In the more representative evening session of FP2, the Briton was quickest from the Silver Arrows of Kimi Antonelli, with his teammate down in fourteenth; though, the session was interrupted for nearly the final 20 minutes of track time to inspect a suspected loose manhole cover at turn 17.

This problem is taken seriously on a temporary track where, at the first Nevada GP held in 2023, a loose drain cover struck Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, heavily harming it and causing the practice to be aborted.

The German Team Confirm Stake Sale

Mercedes have revealed that their team principal Toto Wolff has sold a 15% stake in his investment firm, equating to a 5% share in the squad, to American billionaire the cybersecurity magnate. The investor is the CEO and founder of the digital protection firm CrowdStrike. The team principal will stay on as boss and may receive as much as £230m from the sale, with Mercedes having been valued at £4.57bn, a record for an Formula 1 constructor.