Norris not ruling Verstappen out of F1 title fight

Lando Norris says Max Verstappen will be a threat at every race between now and the end of the season and will not rule him out of the championship fight.

Verstappen delivered a stunning recovery drive from the pit lane to finish on the podium in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, but with Norris winning the gap between the two has grown to 49 points with a maximum of 83 still available. Given the form Verstappen showed on Sunday at Interlagos, Norris believes the defending champion will be fighting for victory at every venue.

“I’m sure he’s going to be a threat in terms of races, and you never know with the championship,” Norris said. “So it’s pointless trying to guess and come up with these things. But with how quick he was [in Interlagos] – he probably would have won if he started higher up.

“But that’s racing. Not everyone puts it together, and it’s easy to make mistakes in the world that we live in. We maximized this weekend for ourselves, and that’s all we have to do. He’ll be a threat – he always is. He’s always there, he’s always fighting, and I’m sure he’ll fight to the end. So I look forward to it.”

If he is to remain in title contention heading to the penultimate round in Qatar, Verstappen will need to ensure he doesn’t lose more than eight points to Norris in Las Vegas, but the championship leader is not predicting a strong weekend for McLaren in Nevada.

“[Cooler temperatures] hinder, for sure. I think it was our worst race last year. So I'm not really looking forward to it. We've been trying to work quite hard on improving those things. We know Mercedes were incredibly strong there last year, as well as Red Bull and Ferraris. I think we were the bottom of those four.

“Obviously, we've improved a lot of things this year, so I'm not going to be too negative about it. I think there's plenty to look forward to. We know Abu Dhabi and Qatar are ones we are looking forward to. Las Vegas just a little bit less, because they've been probably some of our weakest races over the last two years. So let's wait and see.”