Red Bull star Max Verstappen has once again hit out at McLaren after calling them 'failures' ahead of their disastrous finish in the Qatar Grand Prix.
Heading into the Qatar Grand Prix, Lando Norris just needed to win the race to secure his first Formula One Drivers' Championship title.
Failing that, all the Brit needed to do to rule reigning champion Verstappen out of the title race was to finish ahead of him in Qatar, something which should have been likely given the fact he started the race one place ahead of the Dutchman.
However, a slow start from Norris at the beginning of the race combined with a baffling strategy call from the McLaren garage saw Verstappen win the Qatar Grand Prix, with Norris in P4 and McLaren teammate and title hopeful Oscar Piastri in second.
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Ahead of the race, Verstappen didn't hold back in his assessment of McLaren's season so far, and after winning the race in Qatar he took another opportunity to hit out at the rival F1 team.
As Verstappen headed into the Qatar Grand Prix as a heavy underdog, the four-time champion was asked to assess his chances of winning the title.
"We have to be realistic - we are in this fight still because of other people's failures," he stated. "Not because, if you look at the whole of the season, what we did.
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"Yes, we did really well, we really maximised pretty much all races. But if we would have been in the position of how dominant a car [McLaren] had, let's say that, the championship would have been over a long time ago."
And after coming away from Qatar as the race winner, putting himself second in the championship standings, Verstappen doubled down on his claim when asked about McLaren's failures.
Speaking to Verstappen post-race, Sky Sports reporter Rachel Brookes asked: "You said you were only in this fight because of other peoples failures: do you think today was an example of that?”
The Red Bull driver replied: "Another one, yeah. i don’t think today was about [McLaren] playing too fair today, just missing a whole pitstop opportunity.”
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Verstappen will now head into the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi second in the Drivers' standings and just 12 points behind Norris.
That means that, should the Dutchman win the race, he can win the title should the British driver finish P4 or lower.
Meanwhile Piastri is 16 points behind his McLaren teammate and will need Norris to finish sixth or worse to win the title.
Topics: Formula 1, Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, McLaren, Red Bull Racing, Motorsport
Ben McCrum