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Lando Norris does not have to win another race this season, although the McLaren driver will not be looking at it that way, to become Formula One champion.The simple sums after a weekend in Sao Paulo were clear: the title is Norris’s to lose and he is favourite to follow seven-times title-winner Lewis Hamilton as the latest in a line of British world champions.Norris is 24 points clear of Australian teammate Oscar Piastri, whose title bid has rapidly imploded, with three grands prix – Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi – and one Saturday sprint remaining.Even if Piastri were to take maximum points, Norris would still be champion when the final chequered flag is waved under the floodlights at Yas Marina on December 7 if he finished runner-up every time.The chances of that happening are unlikely, however. While the constructors’ champions have romped to seven one-two finishes so far this season, the last was in Hungary in August and Piastri has been off the podium in his last five regular races.Until Mexico last month, Norris had also gone five races in a row without a win.Piastri was 34 points clear of Norris after Zandvoort and lost it all over the next five. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was 104 points behind Piastri at the same point and is now 25 adrift of the Australian.The four-times world champion, along with Mercedes pair Kimi Antonelli and George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Hamilton could still play a big part in the title outcome by taking wins and podiums from the McLaren pair. Norris, 25, will worry less about that than Piastri, who needs to make the big gains and is running out of time to turn things around.The Australian’s surprising tailspin has been stark but there is always hope. One no-score for Norris – and the leader has had two already in 21 races – could put the Australian right back into the reckoning.Norris, who has said he does not believe in momentum, recognised there was still a lot that could happen and rejected talk of his double success in Brazil – sprint and main race – being some turning point.“It’s still a long way to go. So no point getting too happy or excited just yet,” he told reporters.The next race is Las Vegas and McLaren have played down expectations about that one.“I think it was our worst race last year. So I’m not really looking forward to it,” said Norris.“We know Mercedes were incredibly strong there last year, as well as Red Bull and Ferrari. I think we were the bottom of those four.“Obviously, we’ve improved a lot of things this year, so I’m not going to be too negative about it. I think there’s plenty to look forward to. We know Abu Dhabi and Qatar are ones we are looking forward to.”

McLaren boss Andrea Stella says Formula One title contenders Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri can both feel confident going into the last four races, with neither likely to have a track advantage.Norris took over at the top by a point from his Australian teammate in Mexico on Sunday but Stella told reporters there was everything to play for in Brazil, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. There are also two sprints to come in Sao Paulo and Doha. “I think both Lando and Oscar go into the final four races with reasons to be confident,” said the Italian.“The team also go into the final four races with more understanding of how to extract performance from the car consistently, because over the last four races before Mexico at times we have left some performance in the garage.“In the final four races, there’s no reason to think that one (track) may favour one driver or the other.”Piastri has been beaten by Norris in the last five races and the Briton’s dominant victory from pole position in Mexico City on Sunday wiped out the 24-year-old’s 14 point advantage. Norris has said he does not believe in momentum, however, and Piastri sounded more optimistic about his situation after racing from seventh on the grid to fifth at the chequered flag on Sunday.He said he had adapted his driving style to Mexico’s low-grip circuit – conditions Norris thrives on whereas Piastri prefers high grip – and found far more pace than in practice and qualifying.He might have grabbed fourth from Haas’s Oliver Bearman, but for a late virtual safety car.“For Lando and Oscar, there’s no problem in terms of track layout coming in the next four races,” Stella said.“If anything, we need to make sure that from a McLaren point of view we are in condition to extract the full performance that is available in the car.”Stella pointed out that Las Vegas had been difficult for McLaren last season but this year could be different, with the tyres graining less.Norris’s win was his first since Hungary in August and McLaren’s first since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of that month – ending a run of four races without a win for the champions.Stella said Mexico had been a confidence boost for McLaren, even if Red Bull’s resurgent four-times champion Max Verstappen, third on Sunday, cut his gap to the top from 40 points to 36.“We have proven that we have a car that can win races and in some conditions can dominate races,” he added.“This is the most important factor to put Lando and Oscar in condition to pursue the drivers’ championship. I don’t think it’s about mathematics, it’s about competitiveness. And it was important to confirm this competitiveness.”McLaren have ruled out giving Piastri a new chassis, something drivers often ask for when going through an inexplicable drop in performance.“Every evidence, every piece of data, every indirect measurement or information we have tells us that there is no problem with the car,” he told reporters after Saturday qualifying.“In reality, there’s a rotation of parts. So it’s not like there’s always the same parts on the car. So we have reasons to be reassured that there’s no problem with the car.”

Max Verstappen maintained the pressure on McLaren and cut another chunk out of Oscar Piastri's lead in this year's world championship on Sunday when he cruised to a commanding triumph at the United States Grand Prix.In sizzling conditions, Red Bull's four-time world champion led from pole position to chequered flag to come home 7.959 seconds clear of title-chasing Lando Norris, of McLaren, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finishing third, 4.041 adrift.Australian championship leader Oscar Piastri of McLaren finished fifth.It was Verstappen's fourth win in Texas and seventh on American soil, his fifth this year and the 68th of his career.It was also, for Verstappen, the fourth race in succession in which he had out-qualified and out-raced both McLarens.Verstappen has reduced Piastri's 104 point advantage over him to 40 with five races remaining.Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was fourth in the second Ferrari ahead of Piastri and Mercedes's George Russell.Verstappen said: "It's been an unbelievable weekend for us. I knew it wouldn't be straightforward and the pace between us was close. But my first stint did it for me."Now we have a chance to be there (in the title race) and we just have to keep delivering like that in all the weekends to the end of the season and see what happens. It's exciting. We just need to keep up the momentum."Norris was relieved to snatch second place after spending most of the race pushing to overtake Leclerc."It took me long enough! It was a good battle with Charles, he fought hard. It was tough... But I'm happy to take second."Verstappen now has 306 points in the title race in third place leaving Piastri on top with 346 points and Norris on 332. McLaren have already won the constructors' title for the second consecutive year.The 28-year-old Dutchman has now collected 119 points from a possible 135 over the last five Grand Prix weekends.Norris passes Leclerc, twiceOn another day of searing heat in Texas, with temperatures of 30C -- and 44C on the track -- making it a 'heat hazard' race, Verstappen made a clean start to lead up the hill into the opening sequence of turns with Leclerc, the only top ten driver on softs, passing Norris for second.Hamilton and Piastri also advanced to fourth and fifth after a poor start from Russell, all of them on mediums as Norris and Hamilton chased Leclerc in the opening laps. That battle gave Verstappen a clear run and he was three seconds ahead by lap four.Having won Saturday's sprint to trim Piastri's championship advantage to 55 points, the Dutchman was revelling in his form and the role of hunter as McLaren's supremacy evaporated.By lap 10, Verstappen led Leclerc by 3.3 seconds with Norris third, 1.4 adrift and Hamilton fourth, 1.9 behind him. Piastri was fifth, 3.2 seconds back.For McLaren, it was shaping up as a nightmare for team boss Zak Brown who feared "that Max guy getting in the middle of our fun".Leclerc's softs were failing by lap 15 and Norris attacked, but the Monegasque defended and a frustrated Norris collected three warnings for exceeding track limits before he passed him on lap 21.But after a flurry of pit-stops, Verstappen emerged six seconds clear of Leclerc with Norris, back down in third again.What seemed to be a pedestrian contest came to life in the final six laps when Norris attacked Leclerc, who was struggling on his worn mediums, and, after several attempts, dived past him at Turn One on lap 52.That helped Norris trim Piastri's championship lead to just 14 points.

Verstappen leads every lap to win in BakuPiastri crashes on opening lap, lead slashed to 25 pointsNorris starts and finishes seventhRussell second, Sainz thirdMcLaren kept waiting for 10th constructors' titleRed Bull's Max Verstappen cruised to a dominant Azerbaijan Grand Prix victory while Oscar Piastri crashed on the opening lap and had his Formula One lead over McLaren teammate Lando Norris slashed to 25 points.McLaren had hoped to secure their 10th Formula One constructors' title, and second in a row, Sunday with a record seven rounds remaining but must now wait until Singapore on October 5 after their lowest scoring weekend of the season.George Russell finished second for Mercedes, who moved up to second place and 333 points behind McLaren with 346 still to be won, and Carlos Sainz third for Williams's first podium finish since 2021.Norris started and finished seventh in what will rank as a missed opportunity, with six points gained on his rival but his chances of more scuppered by a slow 4.1-second pitstop for the second successive race.The win was Verstappen's second in a row and he led every lap from pole to flag, also setting the fastest lap for a "Grand Slam" that revived his slim title hopes with the reigning champion now 69 points behind Piastri.He took the chequered flag 14.609 seconds clear of Russell, after being more than 32 seconds clear before taking his pitstop."I think this weekend has been incredible for us," said Verstappen after his 67th career win, fourth of the season and second in Baku after a 2022 victory. "For us to win here again is just fantastic."We had clean air all the time and you could then look after your tyres. And yeah, it was pretty straightforward."Russell, recovering from sickness and starting fifth on the grid, was happy to see a rough weekend finish strongly while Sainz - voted driver of the day - was the happiest man on the podium."I cannot describe how happy I am and how good this feels. It tastes even better than my first ever podium," said the Spaniard, a four-times race winner with Ferrari who had started on the front row.The big story came on the opening lap when Piastri, who crashed in qualifying and started ninth, jumped the start and went to the back of the field before ploughing into the wall at turn five.The uncharacteristic errors ended the Australian's record of being the only driver to score in every race this season and also put the brakes on a run of 34 races in the points.He had not failed to finish a race since his 2023 rookie season."Certainly not my finest moment," the 24-year-old told Sky Sports."I just anticipated the start too much and yeah...silly simple error really."Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli was fourth for Mercedes, redeeming himself after a poor home race weekend at Monza, with New Zealander Liam Lawson enjoying a career high fifth for Racing Bulls.Yuki Tsunoda was sixth for Red Bull with Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc following Norris home in eighth and ninth, with the pair swapping places on team orders because Hamilton had fresher tyres.French rookie Isack Hadjar made it a double points finish for Racing Bulls in 10th.Piastri's crash brought out the safety car, a regular feature of races in Baku, and provided the main drama of the 51- lap race around the windy city streets where the threat of a downpour failed to materialise.Norris lost a place to Hadjar and was then passed by Leclerc when the race re-started after the safety car period.The Briton followed Leclerc past Hadjar, whose car had suffered an hydraulics problem before the start, and could have passed both Leclerc and Lawson had his pitstop not cost him critical seconds.He ultimately passed Leclerc with 10 laps remaining but was unable to find a way past Tsunoda."I did the best I could yesterday, the best I could today," said Norris."Every race I didn't win was an opportunity missed, so of course today I wanted more. It was not a good result, but I couldn't do anything more today."

Ferrari made a flying start to their home Italian Formula One Grand Prix Friday but McLaren's title contender Lando Norris, bouncing back from the body blow of car failure in the previous race, set the practice pace.The Briton lapped Monza's sunlit 'Pista Magica' with a best lap of one minute 19.878 seconds in the afternoon's second session, 0.083 quicker than Ferrari's 2024 winner Charles Leclerc. Norris is 34 points behind championship-leading teammate Oscar Piastri with runaway leaders McLaren chasing a sixth win in a row on Sunday.Former Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz was third fastest for Williams with Piastri fourth and Ferrari's seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton fifth. Hamilton, making his first Monza appearance in Ferrari red, and Leclerc had delighted the Ferrari fans with a surprise one-two in first practice.Five-times Italian GP winner Hamilton's leading time then was 1:20.117, with Leclerc 0.169 slower. "The mood in general is very good, and we had a positive push from the tifosi (fans) all week, from Monday morning in front of the factory. This is an extra energy and a good one," said Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur.Hamilton has yet to stand on the podium for Ferrari and it was a morale boost for the team after a double blank in the Netherlands last weekend when both cars crashed. Hamilton will carry a five-place grid penalty into Sunday's race from Zandvoort.Red Bull's four-times world champion Max Verstappen was sixth fastest in session two after ending opening practice fourth with Norris sixth. Piastri sat out first practice, as Irish Formula Two contender Alex Dunne took his place, fulfilling part of the team's young driver commitments, and ended up 16th.Alex Albon was seventh fastest for Williams in both sessions. Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg, Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda and Mercedes' George Russell completed the top 10 in the second session. Racing Bulls' French rookie Isack Hadjar, who took his first F1 podium in last weekend's Dutch race, was 10th and 11th respectively.He triggered a red flag in first practice when he went off at the Ascari Chicane with 25 minutes to go and scattered gravel across the track. Alpine had Estonian reserve driver Paul Aron replacing Argentina's Franco Colapinto for the first session and he finished last. Colapinto was also last when he returned to action.

Bahrain’s Mumtalakat and Abu Dhabi’s CYVN Holdings took full ownership of McLaren Racing Tuesday in a deal some media reports said valued the reigning Formula One champions at more than $4bn.No financial details were given in a McLaren Group statement confirming the purchase of all shares held by MSP Sports Capital, funds managed by O’Connor Capital Solutions, Ares Sports, Media and Entertainment funds and Caspian Funds.Sky News earlier reported the sale of the 30% stake would value the team at more than £3bn ($4.05bn).Bahrain sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat will remain the majority shareholder with CYVN, majority-owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, having a non-controlling stake.CYVN created McLaren Group Holdings last April after completing its acquisition of sportscar maker McLaren Automotive.McLaren Racing runs teams in Formula One, US-based IndyCars and will enter the World Endurance Championship from 2027.US-based investment group MSP and others took a significant minority stake in 2020, when McLaren were in need of funds during the Covid-19 pandemic.The deal, for a maximum 33% stake by 2022, valued the British racing outfit at £560mn at the time. Since then McLaren have emerged as a dominant force in the sport, winning the constructors’ title last year for the first time since 1998 and on course to win both titles this season.“Our suite of minority investors came on board in 2020 and we thank them for their tremendous support over the past few years as we set McLaren Racing on a path to commercial growth and financial stability,” said McLaren Group Executive Chairman Paul Walsh.He said the simplified ownership structure “strengthens our ability to future-proof the business and capture new growth opportunities.”MSP Sports Capital CEO Jeff Moorad and chairman Jahm Najafi will vacate their seats on the McLaren Racing board.Ares Management said in a statement the proceeds from the transaction “will be used to return capital to investors and further strengthen its position as an experienced investor across the sports ecosystem”.

Formula One ends its August break and goes straight back to the beach at Zandvoort this weekend, with Max Verstappen’s rowdy orange army cheering the home Dutch hero against McLaren domination.McLaren’s championship leader Oscar Piastri and teammate Lando Norris, nine points behind after 14 of 24 races, have finished the last four races one-two.Norris, triumphant last year in Zandvoort, will be chasing his fourth win in five races. Few would bet against a fifth successive one-two for the papaya-liveried team as they get back on track after the mandatory summer shutdown, with Zandvoort followed on immediately by Italy’s Monza to round out the European season.“The atmosphere at the Dutch Grand Prix is always mega. Last year here was special, so I’m hyped to be returning,” said Norris, who can take his career tally to 10 wins.“We’re competitive, and ready to continue where we left off, so I’m confident I’ll be fighting out front again.”Australian Piastri has six wins to Norris’ five this season - with Verstappen on two and without a podium appearance since Canada in June - but he did finish fourth last time out in the Netherlands.He can be expected to be far more competitive as he and Norris renew what would normally be considered hostilities, with a title at stake, but has so far been a remarkably sporting duel.Verstappen cannot be counted out either, whatever recent results would suggest.No driver has a relationship with Zandvoort like the home hero, with the Red Bull driver always starting on the front row and winning from pole in 2021, 2022 and 2023 before having to settle for second last year.PARTY TIMEOf the 288 Formula One laps raced there in his lifetime, Verstappen has led 200 and his fans have never lacked an excuse for a party.If he can put his car on pole position again then it is definitely game on.“It is always a special race for me; the atmosphere is amazing and we always have such great support. Driving past a sea of orange when you are racing is an incredible feeling and I am looking forward to being back,” he said.“It will be a tough race and it looks like the weather might make things tricky but let’s see what happens.”Ferrari, second in the constructors’ standings but a mighty 299 points behind McLaren, and Mercedes will also be looking to get in on the action.Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton can expect plenty of attention after suggesting in Hungary before the break that he was useless and Ferrari should consider finding a replacement.The Briton will return well-rested and likely more upbeat.“There’s a lot I’ve been meditating on,” Hamilton posted on Instagram this week in a cryptic message alluding to individual and global issues. “We can’t look away. We have to keep going, even when it’s difficult.”Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur said his team and drivers were recharged and ready for a good weekend. “That means starting right from qualifying, which is particularly crucial at Zandvoort, given how difficult overtaking can be at this track,” he added.