F1 News
Norris downplays blow against Verstappen in qualifying: 'Doesn't change it'
Lando Norris will start the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend behind Max Verstappen. In this race, Norris must finish ahead and outscore the Dutchman by at least three points to keep his (slim) hopes of winning the World Championship alive. The McLaren driver seemingly downplayed the qualifying result and hopes to limit the damage to Ferrari as the attention switches back to the Constructors' Championship.
"Whether he wins or not tomorrow, for me it's not going to change anything. He's pretty likely to win the championship. I'm here to race and do my best in every single race I can. Whether Max finishes ahead or not, that's life," Norris summarised to GPblog and other media after the Las Vegas qualifying session.
Norris is hopeful of beating Verstappen in the race. "He's only just ahead of us today. I think we have a chance to beat them tomorrow. I'll go out and do my best like I do in every single race," Norris added.
McLaren shift their entire focus back to the Constructors' Championship
Meanwhile, McLaren are fighting against Ferrari and Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship. Both Sainz and Leclerc start ahead of Norris and Verstappen so the Italian team have the advantage going into the race. Norris is hopeful to get a better performance on the harder tyres.
"It could be that tomorrow [Sunday] we put on the hard tyre and things come our way a little bit. Every race this year we struggled with graining. We've not been good on the softer tyres [in the entire Pirelli range]. We struggle a lot in these kind of conditions. When you put the hard on hopefully things click a little bit. It's just our weaknesses on how the car is with the front tyres. It's been an issue for a while, we've not been able to tackle it as much as what I would have liked at this point. We're paying the price for that kind of thing," Norris concluded.