Norris holds no grudge, congratulates Verstappen on his 4th title: "Max simply has no weak points"

He was the main opponent of Max Verstappen this season. Tough, fast but perhaps too tender and fragile against the Dutch champion, Lando Norris will not have succeeded in his incredible comeback for the world title. Hope was slim, but it grew from weekend to weekend until this terrible setback in São Paulo which annihilated almost all his chances of consecration. In Las Vegas, the Briton absolutely had to take two more points than his rival to push back the deadline… it failed. Unable to keep up the pace of the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull struck by the number 1, the pilot McLaren quickly became apparent.

After the race, in the mixed zone, Lando Norris did not fail to greet and congratulate his friend – rivals on the track but friends in life – before praising the season of the new quadruple world champion, against whom he fought fiercely. “Congratulations to Max. I’m disappointed not to be in the running, but Max deserved to win. He had a better season than me, he deserved it more than anyone else, Max just doesn’t have a weak point, Lando Norris estimates. When he has the best car he dominates and when he doesn't have the best car he is always there, always there to make your life difficult. He had a very good year, you can't blame him. This weekend was awful from us, we couldn't even fight Max, which I would have liked to do today, but congratulations to him for what he achieved."

Norris " hope this weekend is an anomaly" for McLaren

Sixth in qualifying behind Max Verstappen, Lando Norris knew that the task was not going to be easy during the Grand Prix if he was to hope to regain points against his rival for the championship. Since the first Free Practice, the McLaren MCL38 was not at ease on the atypical Las Vegas circuit. In the race, this seemed even more obvious, with the two papaya single-seaters simply not having weighed in the debates either for the victory or for the podium. The Briton finished where he started, sixth, with a surprising lack of performance from McLaren.

“I think we had to give it our all today, every point will count at the end of the season because Ferrari are performing. But I hope this weekend is a bit of an anomaly for us and we get back to our usual rhythm a bit more in the following weekends, says the English pilot. I don't think our usual pace is necessarily the fastest, I think between us, Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, nobody knows who's going to be leading next weekend or the weekend after. It's exciting for you, it's stressful and it makes our life difficult, and mine behind the wheel! But we're going to keep fighting, we have to, I think it's [the Constructors' fight] still very much alive, I'm confident we can still do it, but it's not going to be easy, far from it."

For McLaren, this new poor performance allows Ferrari to get even closer in the Constructors' Championship. The Scuderia is now 24 points behind the British team before the last two rounds of the season. A historic duel that intensifies from weekend to weekend... to our great pleasure!

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