Lando Norris believes Max Verstappen will fight him to the end despite taking a big step towards knocking the Dutchman out of his World Championship spot.
Norris extended his lead at the top of the standings to 24 points over McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri following his dominant win in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday.
Verstappen fought back from the start to claim third place at Interlagos, narrowing his title loss to Norris to 10 points.
However, he now trails the Briton by 49 points with only 83 points available over the final three rounds.
“I’m sure Max will be a threat in terms of racing, and you never know the championship. So it’s useless trying to guess and come up with these things,” Norris said.
“With how fast he was, he would have won if he had started higher. But that’s racing. Not everyone has it together, and it’s easy to make mistakes in the world we live in.
“Max will be a threat because he always is. He’s always there, always fighting, and I’m sure he’ll fight until the end. I’m looking forward to it.”
Verstappen appeared down and out of the title race when he was eliminated by 104 points after the Dutch Grand Prix on the final day of August.
However, the Red Bull man, who is bidding to win five world titles in a row, brought himself back into contention with a number of impressive drives in a car that, for most of the season, was inferior to Norris’s McLaren.
But they suffered a shock exit from the first section of the qualifiers in Sao Paulo, immediately nullifying their title chances. Even after driving from behind to third, Verstappen believes he will not be able to catch Norris as the massive 24-round season reaches its climax.
Verstappen said: “We did not lose the championship here. We lost the championship from the first race of the season until Zandvoort (August 31).”
“We had a lot of weekends where we weren’t fast enough. Then, of course, there was a big gap at the front. We had good moments where you can get some points back, but not enough, and that’s how the season goes.”
Norris will seek to consolidate his superiority on the Las Vegas Strip on November 22 before the conclusion of the competitions in Qatar (November 30) and the end of the season in Abu Dhabi a week later.
