Norris sees Championship hopes slip away: 'Can't afford these mistakes'

F1 News

Norris thinks he can still beat Verstappen for world title
23 June at 21:00
2
  • Cas van de Kleut

Max Verstappen has increased his championship lead yet again with his victory. The gap with number two, Lando Norris, now stands at 69 points. Despite that, the McLaren driver's hopes of a world title this year have not been dashed.

In recent years, it was clear fairly early in the season that Verstappen was going to be champion. This year too, Red Bull seemed to be heading for another dominant year, but since the Miami Grand Prix, a button has switched. Suddenly, the Austrian team are not as dominant as before.

This is where Norris benefits the most for now. He won in Miami, but the Brit also made things extremely difficult for Verstappen in Imola, Canada and this weekend in Spain. Despite this, the gap is already 69 points, partly because Red Bull did dominate at the beginning of the season and McLaren did not often finish as 'best of the rest'.

Norris holds out hope for world title

When Norris is asked if he thinks he still has a chance of winning the world title, he says: "I should have done better today but we should have got some points back on Max, potentially there was a chance to beat him in Canada so two races that I finished second and he's won."

He continued: "I couldn't care if I was second or tenth but it's more about the gap to what Max is and he's still extending it at the minute and that's something we can't afford to do. Can’t afford to let him run away with it at this point of the season. If I just made a better decision in Canada and if I had a better start today we could have won two races."