Norris: I let Max have a win!

The current Championship leader started the 50-lap event on the Las Vegas Strip from pole position, which he claimed ahead of Verstappen by more than three tenths of a second on Friday night.

Fast forward to the following night, the Briton got off the line worse than the Dutchman, forcing the former to cut the latter off before he could pull alongside.

Unfortunately, Norris outbraked himself into the first corner and ran wide, ceding the lead to Verstappen before losing one more place to the fast-starting Mercedes of George Russell.

For a while the 26-year-old remained in P3, though he eventually managed to get back past Russell on lap 34 of the Grand Prix. However, he didn't have the pace of Verstappen and had to slow down considerably in the final few laps to conserve fuel, ultimately crossing the line over 20 seconds down on the winner.

Speaking immediately after the race, Norris quipped that he purposefully let Verstappen win the race.

He said: "I let Max have a win. I let him go, let him have a nice race!

"No, I just braked too late - it was my F-up," stated Norris.

He also made sure to congratulate Verstappen for his dominant drive in Las Vegas,

He added: "It was not my best performance out there but when the guy wins by 20 seconds it's because he has just done a better job and they're a bit quicker.

"Fun race out there, difficult as always, but good fun," concluded the McLaren driver.

If Norris' race wasn't great by his standards, then Oscar Piastri had a shocker. His run of no podiums continued under the night lights of Nevada state as he crossed the finish line in P5. This became fourth position after a five-second penalty for Andrea Kimi Antonelli was applied.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Piastri felt hard done by on the opening lap, where he was tagged in the rear by Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson.

He told Sky Sports F1: "There's not much to say. I feel like I was one of the only people that actually braked to make the corner [at the start] and I got barged out of the way. That's fine. It is what it is.

"The rest of the race was eventful after that as well, a few too many mistakes, but from start to finish it felt like there was some tough moments during the race."

Piastri continued by stating that dirty air behind slower drivers prevented him from unlocking the maximum pace from himself and his MCL39.

He added: "There was good moments of pace. In clean air we were really quick, but it was difficult before I got the clean air and difficult after it ran out.

"There were little lockups here and there. It's maybe not my favourite circuit of the year but there's plenty of tracks that aren't my favourite that have been good this year.

"It was a bad start, I took a while to find the rhythm and I got stuck behind Antonelli for a long time which hampered our pace quite a lot," concluded the Aussie racer.

Formula 1 will return next week for the Qatar Grand Prix, which commences Sunday 30 November at 16:00 GMT (19:00 local time).