Max Verstappen’s scintillating victory at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from 17th on the grid has effectively already ended Lando Norris’ hopes of fighting for his maiden championship this season. All that now remains for the Briton is to try and prolong the championship fight to the next race in Qatar. However, as per his recent remarks after his struggles during the two practice sessions in Las Vegas, his hope of doing that may also be over.
“I think the low fuel stuff’s been ok. The high fuel I was shocking,” the 25-year-old said in an interview with F1’s Lawrence Barretto. While he believes that he struggled with various issues, he struggled most with the graining of his front tires. “I’m just not very good at it,” he added.
Norris made these remarks after clocking in lap times that were good enough for the top three in both free practice sessions. He clocked the third-fastest time in FP1 before going second fastest in FP2, just 0.011 seconds off the pace set by Lewis Hamilton.
Lando Norris wasn’t ready for his championship battle against Max Verstappen pic.twitter.com/VBzsPvrldt
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) November 21, 2024
What Norris seems most concerned about this weekend is not his ability to set the pace on the one-lap but in his long runs. He stated that Thursday’s running in Las Vegas had “two faces” — he was good with little fuel but found it difficult to manage his tires over the long runs.
So, even if Norris is able to grab pole position, he may not be able to win the race as it is usually easy to overtake on the Las Vegas street circuit. In the inaugural edition of the Las Vegas GP last year, there were a staggering 82 overtakes, the most that have ever been seen for a track hosting its first-ever Grand Prix.
