Lando Norris said McLaren endured a “dreadful” weekend in Las Vegas as he lost the world championship battle to Max Verstappen.
The McLaren driver is now unable to overcome Verstappen’s lead in the drivers’ championship after finishing one place behind the Red Bull in fifth in Las Vegas.
As the only driver who had a hope of catching Verstappen prior to the weekend, Norris admitted that his rival deserved his fourth world title.
“I’ll start off by saying congrats to Max,” Norris said. “I’m disappointed that I’m out of it.
“Max deserved to win it. He’s driven a better season than we did and than I did. He deserved it more than anyone else. Max just doesn’t have a weakness.
“When he’s got the best car, he dominates. And when he’s not got the best car, he’s still just there always. Always there to make your life tough and difficult. He drove a very good year.”
Despite being the team to beat for most of the rounds after the summer break, McLaren never appeared to be in contention for victory over the Las Vegas weekend in the cool and dusty conditions.
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“This weekend’s been dreadful from us,” Norris admitted. “We couldn’t even put up a fight for Max, which is something I would have loved to have done today.”
Although rivals Ferrari are now within 25 points of McLaren in the constructors’ championship with two rounds remaining, Norris is confident McLaren can hold onto their lead.
“Every point’s going to matter, I think, by the end of the season,” he said. “Especially because Ferrari are performing very well.
“But I’m hoping this weekend’s a little bit more of an anomaly for us and we kind of return a bit more back to our usual the next few weekends.
“I don’t think our usual [place] is quickest, necessarily. I think it’s between us, Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull. No one knows who’s going to be on top next weekend or the weekend after.
“[It] makes our life tough and mine behind the wheel. But we’ll keep fighting. We have to. I think it’s very much alive still. I’m confident we can still do it. It’s just not going to be easy by any means.”
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