Max Verstappen said he needed a better result in the Mexican Grand Prix to have a realistic chance to win this year’s world championship.
The reigning world champion arrived at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez 40 points behind leader Oscar Piastri. He left 36 points off the lead after race winner Lando Norris replaced Piastri at the top of the standings.
Verstappen said that four-point gain was not enough. “I lost 10 to Lando, if you look at it like that,” he explained.
“I said before the weekend, everything needs to go perfect to win. And this weekend didn’t go perfect.”
Having won four out of five races before the Mexican Grand Prix (including the sprint race in Austin) Verstappen said he needs last weekend’s result to be a one-off.
“It’s going to be tough, but let’s see what we can do at other tracks. I hope, of course, we won’t experience a weekend like this again.
“But it shows that we’re still not quick in every scenario and that’s what we need to understand, I think, a bit better.”
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Norris scored a dominant win in Mexico which gave him the lead of the championship by a single point from Piastri. However he is wary of the progress Verstappen made in the previous rounds and said the picture could change over the remaining races.
“It’s still pretty tight between us,” he said. “Max has still caught me over the last six, seven weekends.”
“I’ve been keeping my head down, keeping focus, doing my own thing and that’s all you can do. Every weekend is new, every weekend is different, and there’s still a long way to go.”
Last weekend was the fifth round in a row Norris out-scored Piastri, stretching back to his retirement from the Dutch Grand Prix. “The last few [rounds] have been decent,” he acknowledged.
“This has easily been my best performance. But there’s still a long way to go, so I just have to keep doing what I’m doing, keep trying to be consistent against some very quick guys around me. I think that’ll be good.
“But it doesn’t mean because I’m ahead or behind or whatever that I have to drive or do anything differently. Just keep doing what I’m doing.”
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