'It's going to be trickier' – Norris wary of Las Vegas Grand Prix success despite back-to-back victories

Lando Norris believes "expectations are not to the same level" this weekend for the Las Vegas Grand Prix as at previous races this season, with the McLaren driver admitting "it's going to be trickier" due to the track layout and cold temperatures.

Norris heads into this weekend's event having claimed dominant victories at the two previous races in Mexico City and Brazil, which has helped the Briton establish a 24-point lead over team mate Oscar Piastri.

Despite the strong run of form, Las Vegas has historically been a venue where McLaren has struggled since it was introduced to the calendar in 2023, with Norris crashing out during that year's race and finishing only sixth 12 months ago.

"From the last two years it's certainly been the hardest race of the year that we've had," said Norris during the pre-weekend press conference.

"So my expectations are not to the same level as Mexico and Brazil where we've been performing very well for a good amount of years.

"But we've had an excellent year, we've improved in places that we struggled in the past so I'm certainly coming in with more confidence than in previous years but not the same amount of confidence going into the last few races we've had.

"You never know, expectations are still high, I'm still coming here to win and to want to repeat the last few weekends I've had but I think it's going to be tricker for sure than the last couple."

With just three Grands Prix and one Sprint remaining this campaign, Norris looks on course for his maiden World Championship having overturned a 34-point deficit to Piastri after his retirement in Zandvoort from a mechanical issue.

Over the following six races, Norris has claimed two wins and a further three podiums in contrast to the sole rostrum for his team mate.

When asked if anything had changed during that period, Norris admitted that work away from the track even earlier in the season had been crucial, and was still proving pivotal.

"It's just a constant amount of work that I do with my team to always keep finding little things," said Norris.

"It's not like I've gone out and gone 'this is how the car needs to be driven'. I still struggle now, one weekend to the next it changes. Mexico to Austin, completely different feelings, to Brazil again, completely different feelings. It's not like you figure it out and everything is easy.

"I still, every weekend, need to adapt a lot to how the car wants to be driven. It's never one thing, it's just a lot of things that I've been doing on the simulator, I've been spending time with my team on trying to figure out and adapt, to having better procedures of working through FP1, FP2, FP3 to try and understand more about the car and the way it needs to be driven.

"I've had to step up more than ever in terms of my work ethic, my understanding of all of these things. Get more out of the people around me and then get more out of me at the same time and work more than I have before."