RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesLando Norris has revved up the world championship mind games with Kimi Antonelli by claiming “the pressure is on him” to win the title.
Italian teenager Antonelli heads into the summer shutdown with a commanding 50-point lead over Lewis Hamilton after landing six wins from the 11 rounds so far.
Antonelli’s Mercedes team-mate George Russell is nine points further back, following a string of reliability problems, while Norris is 91 points off the pace.
Norris’ championship defence has not gone to plan in a McLaren inferior to Antonelli’s Mercedes.
However, an updated car carried Norris to his first win of the year at Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
And with 12 scheduled rounds still to come after the four-week summer break, and buoyed by his first win since last November’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Norris said: “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.
“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.
“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 will be able to take some encouragement from Max Verstappen’s bid to derail his maiden title last year.
Verstappen was 104 points behind in the championship race and took Norris to a nerve-jangling finale in Abu Dhabi.
The F1 season will resume in the Netherlands on August 24.
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