After an impressive victory in Brazil, Max Verstappen hopes this momentum will allow him to clinch his fourth world title this weekend in Las Vegas.
As the paddock prepares, all eyes are on the Dutchman's considerable lead in the standings over Lando Norris. A finish in the lead this weekend, whatever the Briton's place, would allow him to win the title.
Verstappen has failed to win two consecutive races since June, when he crossed the line first in Canada and Spain, but his remarkable comeback from 17th to 1st place in Brazil could give him the energy to republish this feat.
Asked if the team had prepared anything special for the possibility of him winning the championship in Las Vegas, Verstappen said: “If that's the case, I don't want to know! I just want to focus on the weekend and try to put in a good performance. Brazil was a very welcome win for us after a while, but it It's still very different.”
“After the last races we definitely didn't have the fastest car, so we'll see what we can do here. Last year we had a fun race here, but Ferrari was already very fast. This track seems to suit their car, but hopefully we can fight this weekend to try and win again.”
In the inaugural race on the Las Vegas Strip last season, the driver took victory ahead of Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez after recovering from a penalty in the incident-filled event.
This time last year, Verstappen had already clinched his third world title in the most dominant season of his career
“It looks a little better now in the championship, but we'll see this weekend. We have good hopes of being competitive, but I don't know how competitive. I feel like even in Brazil in the dry, we were finally quite good in race pace.”
“It's of course a completely different track, completely different temperatures. I just hope we can continue this momentum a little bit. There's still a lot to play for – even among the manufacturers, I think there's “There's a chance, so we'll see what we can do.”
“I'm looking forward to the weekend. There are three races left, we're getting closer to the end of the season and the championship is looking good, but we still need to score a lot of points, so we'll focus on that .”
“Once we achieve that, we will get closer to the final result. Of course, the goal is to win the championship.”
The Red Bull driver doesn't want to sell the bear's skin before he kills it.
“All it takes is for Lando to finish in front of me for it to be decided in Qatar. It's far from impossible, obviously. So, at the moment, it's difficult to say, if I can win the title on Sunday, because if you look at the last races, in the dry, of course, we didn't have the pace in general against McLaren.”
“Just because we won in the rain in Brazil doesn't mean everything is suddenly settled and everything is fine. Of course it gave me a good championship position, but I also have to be realistic, we won't We're still not the fastest.”
“I hope we can be competitive here. It's still very uncertain with the track temperatures, of course, like last year, very cold.”
However, this title seems to be acquired now, does that take any pressure off him?
“I mean the pressure is that I always want to do well every weekend. It's not necessarily about the championship. I'm just trying to enjoy the weekend too, trying to see how competitive we can be.”
“The championship is not yet decided, so there are still points to score. It depends on my speed. It has more to do with the quality of the car than anything else.”
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