Lando Norris receives ‘lucky payback’ moment with F1 2024 title chances boosted

Martin Brundle believes winning the Drivers’ title is “doable” for Lando Norris with the tide turning in his favour after two lucky escapes at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Although Max Verstappen and Red Bull dominated the early rounds in F1 2024, winning seven of the opening 10 Grands Prix, McLaren ate into their advantage on the track with their in-season upgrades.

Lando Norris winning the title is ‘doable’ but he’ll need outside assistance

Sticking with the floor design that they unleashed at the Miami Grand Prix, the race where Norris claimed his maiden F1 Grand Prix victory, the Woking team not only avoided the correlation issues that tripped up many of their rivals this season but it gave them the platform to focus on other areas to optimise the car.

And optimise it they did, the MCL38 now billed as the car to beat.

Recording a run of 14 podium finishes, and four wins in the last six races, McLaren have edged ahead of Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship by 41 points while Norris, who has three wins on the board, is nibbling away at Verstappen’s lead in the Drivers’ Championship.

Taking 26 points off the reigning World Champion in the last four races, Brundle believes Norris can beat Verstappen to the 2024 World title – but it won’t be easy.

“McLaren extended their Constructors’ Championship lead to 41 points, and Norris is now 52 behind Verstappen with six GPs and three Sprints remaining,” the former F1 driver wrote in his Sky Sports column.

“He’s going to need to win pretty much everything from hereon and hope that his team-mate and both Ferrari and Mercedes can take points off Verstappen.”

“It’s doable,” he added.

F1 2024: The title fight no one saw coming

👉 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ standings after the Singapore Grand Prix

👉 The ultimate F1 2024 title calculator: How Lando Norris could beat Max Verstappen

“It’s especially doable given it appears Lady Luck is finally smiling down on the McLaren driver.

“Not only did Norris finally lead at the end of lap one having started from pole position, doing so in Singapore for the first time in six P1 starts, but he twice touched the wall at the Marina Bay circuit without any consequences.

“From time to time Norris has been unlucky in his F1 career, things haven’t always fallen his way,” said Brundle, “but he had some lucky payback on Sunday evening [in Singapore].

“A locked brake took him gently into the tyre wall at one point, but it was soft enough not to damage his front wing or drag the car into the barriers. That was a very close call.

“Later on, he would clip the same wall jutting out on the approach to turn 10 which destroyed George Russell’s car and race last year. A couple more centimetres the wrong way and Norris’ race would have been over.

“It was a wake-up call for him, comfortably out front and no doubt beginning to feel hot and bothered in the car, and so next lap he delivered his fastest of the race to tune his senses back up.”

Norris went on to win the race by 21s ahead of Verstappen, his biggest winning margin in F1.

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