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oscar piastri Despite this, he is confident about his chances of the Formula One World Championship lando norris And max verstappen Decreased his lead at the United States Grand Prix.
Piastri suffered a tough weekend Austincollide with mclaren Teammate Norris was eliminated in the Saturday sprint before finishing only fifth in the race as Verstappen won easily.
Norris’s second-place finish meant he reduced the gap to Piastri to just 14 points, while Verstappen’s 33 points over the weekend saw him reduce his deficit to the leader from 23 points to 40.
The momentum is not with the Australian as he finished behind both Norris and Verstappen for the fourth race in a row. No McLaren driver has won since Zandvoort five races ago – after which Verstappen was 104 points off the lead.
Piastri, a former F2 and F3 champion, admits his form needs a change but is happy with his position with five rounds remaining and 141 points.
“I’d still rather be where I am than the other two,” Piastri said.
“Certainly Max and Red Bull have picked up a lot of momentum since the summer break. We saw glimpses of it at the beginning of the year, but it has been consistent since then.
“I’ve been in fights that have been as close as they are or even closer than they are right now. So I’ve got proof for myself that things can still go good and I still have full confidence that I can win a championship.
“This weekend has obviously been tough and the gap has narrowed a bit over the last few weekends.”
Pole-sitter Verstappen completed a perfect weekend at the Circuit of the Americas, also winning Saturday’s sprint from pole, easily winning by nearly eight seconds from Norris in a lights-to-flag victory.
Norris’ hopes of victory were dashed after losing to Charles Leclerc at the start and he had to overcome a race-long duel with the Ferrari driver to finish second in the closing stages.
What looked to be a two-way title battle all season is now a three-way battle, but Piastri is relaxed about the threat Verstappen poses.
“You know, there’s still a lot of time left in the championship,” he said. “It’s still there, for Max anyway, he’s obviously chased it down a lot faster, but with five rounds it’s not a small difference at all.
“At the end of the day, if we can find our way again, find our momentum, certainly for me, find our momentum again, then I don’t have any big concerns.”
Verstappen downplayed his title chances before the summer break and admitted he would not have believed it if he had been told after Zandvoort that he would be only 40 points behind with four races remaining.
“I would have thought he was an idiot!” He said. “We found a good way with the car, absolutely simple.
“We need to be perfect until the end to have a chance.”