LAS VEGAS: Max Verstappen, needing just three points over Lando Norris at the Las Vegas Grand Prix to seal a fourth consecutive Formula 1 championship, is suddenly in jeopardy of being denied the crown Saturday night.
The most jarring sign of trouble came in Thursday night’s second practice when the Dutchman was a dismal 17th on the speed chart compared to Norris, who was among the top three fastest drivers in both sessions.
Red Bull apparently brought the wrong rear wing to Las Vegas and GPS data showed its two cars to be significantly slower on the straights than both McLaren and Mercedes, which led both practice sessions with Lewis Hamilton. Red Bull said it doesn’t have a replacement rear wing in Las Vegas to fix the issue and little chance of getting two flown in from England in time.
Verstappen, however, proved two weeks ago in Brazil that adversity is nothing he can’t overcome. He started 17th on a wet and rainy circuit and still managed to win his first race since June by nearly 20 seconds.
Verstappen, whose eight wins this season are his fewest since 2020, has not won back-to-back races since Canada and Spain in June. But the Brazil win widened his lead over Norris in the standings to 62 points and the championship is his barring a complete collapse over the final three races.
He is not sure what to expect Saturday night.
“I just want to focus on the weekend and try to have a good performance. Brazil was a very welcome victory for us after a while, but this is again very different,” said Verstappen, who won the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix last year.
Prior to discovering the rear wing issue, Verstappen felt decent about his chances in Las Vegas.
“Three races left, you’re getting close to the end of the season and it’s looking good in the championship, but we still need to score a lot of points so we’ll just focus on that,” he said. “Once we are doing that then you get closer to the end result.”
Norris not giving up
Norris was admittedly downtrodden after Brazil, where he started on the pole but finished sixth and lost ground to Verstappen after first cutting the lead to 44 points by winning the sprint race.
“This was almost a defining moment for the championship. It was a defining moment for the championship. The doors are almost shut,” Norris said. “For a week, I was pretty down because I had that realization of things pretty much out of my control now, not within reach necessarily. That’s a tough realization when your hopes and belief are so high. For it to get knocked down so much all of a sudden was pretty demoralizing.”
Even so, Norris is convinced he will one day be F1 world champion.
“I have what it takes,” Norris said. “I think it’s the first time in the last six years of F1 when we’ve had a chance to fight at the front. This is our, and my, first opportunity to do so, and my first opportunity to see where I stand. I definitely was not at the level I needed to be at the beginning of the year.
“I still need to make tweaks and I still need to improve on things, that’s clear. I’m not completely satisfied with how I’ve done and I definitely know I need to make improvements,” he added. “But, for the first time, I’m confident to say I have what I think I need to fight for a championship.”
Norris has the first three wins of his career this season and has McLaren currently atop the constructor championship standings. He knows he’s got more work to do to be champion, especially against Verstappen.
“It doesn’t mean I’m complete, it doesn’t mean I’m perfect. When you’re competing against drivers who are close to that, like Max, you have to be close to perfect if you want to challenge him,” Norris said.
Constructor championship
McLaren is still clinging to a 36-point lead over Ferrari in the battle for the constructor championship, a title worth a bonus estimated to be $150 million.
McLaren last won that title in 1998, while Ferrari last won in 2008. Red Bull has won the last two titles. Ferrari could chip away at McLaren’s lead at Las Vegas.
“Ferrari have been strong for a long time,” said Norris. “They have two very good drivers, they’re a very good team, they’ve clearly improved their car a good amount and found a better direction to head down. We do know that Vegas is probably a track that will suit the Ferraris a bit more, it suited them well last year, but Qatar we know maybe will be more favorable to us.”
Carlos Sainz Jr., in his final three races for Ferrari before he is replaced by Hamilton and moves to Williams, wants to close his tenure by helping the team win the constructors title.
“I would love to win the championship for Ferrari this year,” Sainz said. “I think it would be a great way to sign off the season.”
He predicted that McLaren will be stronger in the final two races of the year, at Qatar and Abu Dhabi. But at Las Vegas? Sainz expects he and teammate Charles Leclerc to be stronger.
“This (track) is more Ferrari than McLaren, but at the same time, the temperature is not, so we’ll see how it pans out,” Sainz said of temperatures expected to be in the 40s Fahrenheit (5-10 degrees Celsius) on Saturday night.

MANCHESTER: New Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim said he is the right man to revive the ailing English giants’ fortunes ahead of his debut against Ipswich on Sunday.
Amorim was hired from Sporting Lisbon to replace Erik ten Hag, who was sacked after a dismal start to the season left United languishing in 13th place in the Premier League.
The 39-year-old is regarded as one of the brightest young coaches in Europe after leading Sporting to a pair of Portugese titles during his four years in Lisbon.
But United have won just four of their 11 league games this term, extending a malaise that has set in since they last won the Premier League in Alex Ferguson’s final season in charge 11 years ago.
Asked if he believes he can eventually restore United to the summit of English football, Amorim told reporters on Friday: “I’m a little bit of a dreamer, I believe in myself. I believe in the club, we have the same mindset.
“I truly believe in the players, I know you don’t believe a lot but I do. I want to try new things. You guys don’t think it’s possible, I do.”
After arriving in Manchester during the international break, Amorim will finally get his first taste of the Premier League when United travel to struggling Ipswich this weekend.
He is trying to succeed where David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ten Hag all failed by bringing the title back to Old Trafford.
The Portuguese boss is adamant reviving United is not an impossible job, despite a difficult combination of high expectations and underperforming squad.
“Call me naive, but I truly believe that I’m the right guy in the right moment,” he added.
Amorim was speaking to the media for the first time since taking charge on November 11.
The packed press conference room at United’s Carrington training ground underlined what Amorim has already started to realize about the size and global reach of the 20-time English champions.
“It’s bigger than I imagined. There’s a lot of departments, it’s so much different than Sporting, and Sporting is a big club in Portugal,” he said.
“This you feel is a global club, so you have so much to do.”
Amorim’s rise has been compared to the early success enjoyed by compatriot Mourinho at Porto.
Mourinho took English football by storm when appointed Chelsea boss in 2004, shortly after guiding Porto to Champions League glory.
“He sent me a message saying it’s a big club with lovely people, and he’s correct, it still is,” Amorim said of Mourinho.
“With all the Portuguese coaches, we’ve shown that we can be the best in the world. I’m different from Mourinho. He was a European champion, I am not.
“Football is different nowadays, I think I am the right person for this moment. I am a young guy and I try to use this to help my players.”
Amorim’s confidence extends to his tactics and he is ready to stick with his preferred 3-4-3 system despite players who might not be suited to the formation.
“I prefer to risk a little bit,” he said. “We will adapt some players because we don’t have the right profile.
“This team was built for a different system. It’s not evolution or revolution, it’s a change in the way we play football.”
Acknowledging United’s numerous flaws, Amorim knows he faces a massive task to catch up the likes of rivals Manchester City and Liverpool.
“We have space to grow as a team. We have to improve in a lot of areas,” he said.
“If you want to speak about the team and the way we play, we lose the ball too often. We have to be better at running back and we have to be very good in the details.
“We have to change the physical aspect of the team. I don’t know how long it will take. We have to improve a lot to try to win the title.”