Championship situation ‘alarming, but no need to panic yet’

Max Verstappen agreed Lando Norris’ progress in the drivers’ championship is cause for alarm, but says he isn’t panicking about his situation just yet.

Norris returned from the summer break with a crushing win at Verstappen’s home track, Zandvoort. However Verstappen retains a healthy, 70-point lead with nine rounds remaining.

Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko described Norris’ 22-second victory as “alarming”, a view Verstappen shared. “I think this weekend was just a bad weekend in general, so we need to understand that,” he said.

“The last few races already, they haven’t really been fantastic. So that, I think in a sense, was already a bit alarming.

“But we know that we don’t need to panic. We are just trying to improve the situation. And that’s what we are working on. But F1 is very complicated.”

But despite McLaren’s strong performance last weekend Norris said he is still too far behind his rival to entertain serious thoughts of rivalling him for the championship.

“I’ve been fighting for the championship since the first race of the year,” said Norris. “There’s no sudden decision of ‘now I need to do better’. I’ve been working hard the whole year and I’m still 70 points behind Max so it’s pretty stupid to think of anything at the minute.

“I just take one race at a time and just keep doing what I’m doing now because there’s no point to think ahead and think of the rest. I don’t care about it at the minute.

“I’m just focused on one race at a time. So it’s not a question that I need to get asked every single weekend.”

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