Lando Norris says Max Verstappen will be a threat in every race between now and the end of the season and will not be ruled out of the championship race.
At the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Verstappen made a spectacular recovery drive from the pit lane to take the podium, but Norris’ win widened the gap between the two to 49 points, with a maximum of 83 points remaining. Given Verstappen’s form at Interlagos on Sunday, Norris believes the defending champion will fight for victory at any venue.
“I’m sure he’ll be a threat when it comes to racing, but I don’t know when it comes to the championship,” Norris said. “So it’s pointless to try to guess or come up with these things. But given his speed (at Interlagos), he probably would have won if he had started higher.
“But that’s racing. Not everyone does it well and it’s easy to make mistakes in the world we live in. We made the most of this weekend for ourselves. That’s all we have to do. He’s going to be a threat, he’s always a threat. He’s always there, always fighting. And I’m confident he’ll fight to the end. So I’m looking forward to it.”
Verstappen will need to avoid losing more than eight points to Norris in Las Vegas if he wants to remain in title contention heading into the penultimate round in Qatar, but the championship leader does not expect a strong weekend for McLaren in Nevada.
“(The drop in temperature) is definitely a hindrance. I think last year was the worst race, so I’m not really looking forward to it. We’ve been working pretty hard to improve them. I know Mercedes were incredibly strong there last year, and so were Red Bull and Ferrari. I think we were last of those four.”
“Obviously, we’ve improved a lot of things this year, so I’m not going to be too negative. I think there’s a lot to look forward to. I know Abu Dhabi and Qatar are the races that we’re looking forward to, because Las Vegas was probably some of our weakest races over the last two years, so we’ll see.”
