Verstappen surprises Piastri with comeback in F1: Goodbye to the lead?

Piastri Surprised by Verstappen’s Rise in Championship Fight

Oscar Piastri has expressed his surprise at the speed with which Max Verstappen has climbed in the fight for the world championship. After Piastri’s victory in Zandvoort at the end of August, the Australian driver led his teammate Lando Norris by 34 points and Verstappen by 104. However, Piastri has not managed to beat Norris or Verstappen in the following four races, seeing his advantage reduced to only 14 points over Norris and 40 over the Dutchman, which has generated a real three-way battle. Red Bull is expected to show great performance again on a track where Verstappen has won five times. Another successful weekend for the four-time world champion would continue his rapid rise in the fight for the title.

The 28-year-old driver, who stated that his quest for a fifth consecutive championship had ended before the summer break, has outperformed the McLaren duo in each of the last four races.

I think so, but we all thought so.

Piastri

When asked if he believed after Zandvoort that his fight for the title was only with Norris, Piastri replied:

The run of form that (Verstappen) has had since Monza has been a bit surprising. There were flashes of that performance at the beginning of the season, but also quite big dips.

Piastri

Piastri had a difficult weekend in Austin, suffering an accident in the sprint race and also eliminating Norris before finishing fifth in Sunday’s race.

He arrived at the fight faster than he expected.

Piastri

The 24-year-old driver claims he is not thinking about the threat posed by his rivals.

The gap has closed a little in the last races, but the focus has always been on going as fast as possible. I prefer to have the lead than to be in any other position. It doesn’t benefit me to worry or focus on that.

Piastri

There are five races left until the end of the championship, with 141 points still up for grabs before this weekend’s battle in Mexico City. Piastri struggled here last year, suffering a surprising elimination in Q1 before fighting to eighth place in the race. The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez presents a unique challenge for cars and drivers, being more than 2 km above sea level, with the low air density at altitude, which makes it difficult to generate aerodynamic downforce.