Lando Norris has ignited the Formula One world championship battle, declaring that "the pressure is on him" for rival Kimi Antonelli to go on and win the title after building up a significant lead in the standings.
Antonelli heads into the summer break with a commanding 50-point advantage over Lewis Hamilton, having secured six victories from 11 rounds so far. His Mercedes team-mate George Russell sits nine points further back, after being hampered by reliability issues, while Norris is 91 points adrift of the Italian.
Norris’s championship defence has struggled with a McLaren inferior to Antonelli’s Mercedes for much of the season. However, an updated car carried him to his first win of the year at Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Buoyed by his first triumph since last November’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Norris asserted: "The pressure is on him (Antonelli). There is no pressure on me. I have been feeling very confident. They (Mercedes) have made more mistakes as a team. and we have made less and we have come strong, but I expect them to still win races and expect us to win more races."
Reflecting on his Hungarian success, he added: "We were the quickest in Hungary from qualifying to the race. Not every race is going to be this simple, so we need to work hard to try to get the car to be this good everywhere." The British driver hinted at a potential title charge, stating: "And if we can, maybe that (launching a championship challenge) is a genuine question. We just need to be perfect from here for the whole year."
Norris can draw encouragement from Max Verstappen’s remarkable comeback last year, when he overcame a 104-point deficit to take the championship fight against Norris down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.
In a significant development off-track, Red Bull has announced the signing of Frenchman Gwen Lagrue, the talent scout credited with discovering Antonelli for Mercedes and overseeing his and George Russell’s development. Lagrue will lead Red Bull’s junior programme from next year.
The Formula One season is set to resume in the Netherlands on August 24.
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