Singapore GP: Norris says Verstappen is genuine contender for title

Lando Norris said Max Verstappen is still a genuine challenger for the world championship but insisted McLaren will not prioritise one of their stars to fend off the Dutchman.

Red Bull's Verstappen is 69 points behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in the championship and 44 points behind Norris with seven races left.

The task of winning the championship looks difficult at the moment for the Dutch driver, considering the dominant performance of the McLaren throughout the season; however, Verstappen has sparked the discussion after back-to-back wins at Monza and Azerbaijan.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri crashed out of the race in Baku on the first lap, while Norris started and finished seventh.

Norris said that Verstappen is a genuine challenger.

He added that at the beginning of the season, Red Bull were challenging McLaren in the first six to seven races, then we made upgrades and improved, but now they are again at the same level as us.

"He is genuinely a challenger," Norris said of Verstappen.

"If you go back to the beginning of the season they were challenging us for the first six or seven races for wins, then we brought some upgrades and improved a little bit.

"But then they brought a couple of upgrades and that has put them on the same level. We are still expecting to dominate and we come to these races with the goal and ambition of winning and wanting to dominate and continue the form we have shown all season.”

Norris continued saying in Baku, McLaren had the car to win, but we did not manage to win. We will go to Las Vegas and other low-downforce tracks, which will not favour us, but we will try our best.

"But in Baku we had the car to win and we didn't. We had the chance to fight Max. At the round before in Monza they were too quick for us. And if there are some races coming up where he is too fast, which is very possible, because I expect them to be quick for many of the races this season,” Lando Norris added.

"We will go to Las Vegas and other low-downforce tracks where we don't expect to be as great as we have been - so that is an opportunity for Red Bull -but we are just focusing on ourselves and maximising our performances."

Norris, who is 25 points behind Piastri in the title race, when asked if he is concerned about McLaren prioritising one of their drivers to fend off Verstappen, he snapped back: "I am very concerned. I am very worried about it. And scared frankly. I am happy you asked that. No."