Norris has “risen to the occasion” in title fight with Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton says the championship battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris is “really exciting” for F1 after two years without a title fight.

Verstappen leads Norris by 47 points with four rounds remaining, starting with this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

It is the first time the championship has still been alive heading to Sao Paulo since 2021, when Hamilton and Verstappen were locked in an intense battle for the title. Hamilton said Norris has risen to the challenge of taking on one of the sport’s toughest competitors.

“I think it’s really exciting for the sport, firstly,” Hamilton said. “The last couple of years have been not necessarily so exciting, obviously, with Max leading the way. That sometimes happens.

“But I think it’s been really exciting for the fans to see that it can go right down to the wire at the end of the year. There’s still a possibility of Lando catching up. I read somewhere I think he’s got to get 11 points more in each race or something over these next races, which is definitely possible with the performance they have.

“We all know Max and his strengths – can’t really say too many weaknesses, if any. You’ve got obviously Lando, who’s really risen to the occasion and he’s been really leading the team.”

Despite controversial incidents between the two drivers in the last two rounds in the United States and America, Hamilton insists he trusts both drivers to race each other fairly over the remaining rounds.

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“I haven’t really spent too much time looking at how they’re racing and how they position the cars,” he said.

“Obviously everyone knows what happened in the last race or the last two races, everyone will have opinion on it. But at the end of the day, those two are the drivers who know what they’re doing. I’m really excited to see what happens over these next races. I’m just hoping that I can at least have a good seat view to watch it all as they’ll be ahead.”

Hamilton is mathematically out of championship contention, the third successive year he has been unable to fight for his eighth world title with Mercedes. Despite leaving for Ferrari at the end of the season, Hamilton is sure Mercedes will be stronger next year.

“Of course, we would have all loved to have been in the fight for the championship,” he said. “That’s what everyone works towards.

“We knew at the beginning of the year it was going to be tough, as soon as we hit the ground. We didn’t expect to also have some of the success we had.

“Obviously Silverstone, everyone worked so hard to get that result, which I’m so incredibly grateful to the team for. But I know this team so well and I know that the result and the position we’re in this year will just only fuel them more to work harder to have a better car next year.”

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