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Amid the excitement surrounding the Sin City Grand Prix, McLaren's lead driver is keeping a calm demeanor about his chances of securing his first drivers' championship.

The British driver currently holds a two-dozen point lead over fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and is ahead of Max Verstappen by 49 points, with just a maximum of eighty-three points available across the remaining trio of races. However, after pulling off a remarkable recovery from a significant deficit Piastri following the Dutch Grand Prix in the summer, Norris is concentrating on performing with the methodical approach that propelled him to the top of the championship.

"It can easily turn in the other direction again as much as I hope it doesn't," he stated. "That's racing, as we all know. Sometimes you get lucky. You can also be unfortunate. No matter what happens. It's not worth getting excited or thinking about it. I continue to do see it as something that's quite far away."

Norris has found his peak performance at a critical moment—having struggled with the car in the opening half of the campaign—at the same time that his teammate has shed the disciplined, almost perfect composure that previously made him appear to be a future title winner. Importantly, Norris kept a impressive level of composure all along, insisting even in the face of setbacks—like his retirement from the Zandvoort race—that he would adhere to his strategy and work every outing with the same relentless attention to detail. It has yielded results.

All the while, McLaren have worked hard to try to preserve a level playing field for their pair of racers, and it has at times been something of torturous experience, especially at the Italian Grand Prix when the squad instructed Piastri to surrender second place to his teammate after he had fallen behind due to a slow pit stop. Some fans were unhappy with what was considered the team unnecessarily interfering with their competitors.

Norris has claimed victory in the previous pair of grands prix, in Mexico and Brazil, and was jeered on the winner's rostrum at each, leaving him unfazed. "When you're on top, a lot of individuals try to bring you down. They do not like seeing you winning. I see it as a positive sign," he said.

"It amuses me. When I was on the winner's stage in Brazil, I truly enjoyed it. The experience was very satisfying. You finally feel like you are achieving something right.

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

Las Vegas, on the other hand, must be mastered, and it is a circuit suited to the British team. It shares similarities with Montreal and Azerbaijan: minimal aerodynamic grip, chilly conditions, and low grip. These are the only two circuits in the current championship where McLaren have been unable to claim at least one podium place, and Norris was cautious once more about their prospects this weekend. Yet, his task in the short term is straightforward: finish in ahead of his teammate and the championship tally he needs will come.

Practice Sees Varied Results for Championship Contenders

The Ferrari driver topped the leaderboard in FP1 on what was remained a sandy and extremely slippery track. The Williams racer was second, with the Red Bull star in fourth, Norris in P6, and Piastri eighth. During the more indicative night running of second practice, Norris was fastest ahead of the Mercedes of the Italian rookie, with Piastri 14th; though, the practice was interrupted for almost all of the final 20 minutes of track time to inspect a reported loose manhole cover at turn 17.

This problem is treated with caution on a temporary track where, at the first Nevada GP staged in 2023, a loose drain cover smashed into Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, severely harming it and causing the session to be aborted.

Mercedes Announce Ownership Transaction

The eight-time constructors' champions have confirmed that their team principal the Austrian executive has sold a fifteen percent share in his investment firm, equating to a 5% share in the team, to US tycoon the cybersecurity magnate. Kurtz is the chief executive and creator of the cybersecurity company the tech giant. Wolff will stay on as team principal and could earn as much as £230m from the sale, with the Brackley-based outfit having been appraised at £4.57bn, a record for an F1 team.