What you can’t do is offer your title rival the freedom of Texas and expect to beat him to the most fiercely contested prize in motor racing.
That is what Lando Norris did in the US Grand Prix. Max Verstappen needs no second invitation. He is adept at threading his rampaging Red Bull through the eye of a needle with sledgehammer force, let alone blast down a hole he should never have been afforded.
This was always going to be the latest severe test of Norris’s mettle, with him starting on pole and Verstappen alongside him on the grid.
He flunked it to finish fourth, despite harrying Verstappen through the final, thrilling exchanges. The Dutchman, in a slower car, drove like a god to defend third place. Norris was penalised for gaining an advantage by going off track in passing Verstappen at Turn 12 four laps from the end. Hearts were in mouths.
The race was won by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari one-two. The upshot is that Norris falls 57 points back, five more than at the start of the weekend, with five rounds remaining. The maths can only give him a headache.
Charles Leclerc won the United States Grand Prix at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas on Sunday
Ferrari driver Leclerc crossed the finishing line 8.562 seconds before his nearest competitor
Leclerc overtook both Lando Norris and Max Verstappen on the opening corner in Texas
Ferrari claimed a one-two as Carlos Sainz Jnr finished second behind team-mate Leclerc
Verstappen (right) and Norris (left) finished Sunday’s race third and fourth respectively
Lewis Hamilton failed to finish the race after crashing out during his third lap on Sunday
It all went back to how they would fare in that steepling road into the first corner, past the packed, sun-soaked hoards on the outside of the stunning scene?
Norris, who has a record of timidity off the line, was quick to react. His initial getaway was Bolt-esque. He commanded the track on the initial ascent but was on the brakes too early, allowing Verstappen to take the lead via the only conceivable route – on Norris’s left, on the inside.
Now, Verstappen is not known to be a shrinking violet. Pleasant off track, on it he’d mug his granny. Norris, to put it mildly, could hardly be unaware of this side of his pal’s DNA. So there is was no excuse for his caution.
Norris complained over the radio, nevertheless. ‘He clearly pushed me off,’ he did protest too much. ‘He had no intention of making the corner. He had to go off the track as well. I had to avoid crashing into him.’
Zak Brown, Norris’s McLaren boss, contended that Verstappen had ‘divebombed’ his man. He would do.
But I am afraid not even jingoism can hide the fact Verstappen simply exploited a legitimate chance. The stewards did not even note the incident.
By turn two of lap one of 56, Norris was back in fourth.
Echoes of past races came to mind. On only one occasion when the Briton has started on pole, in seven grands prix and one sprint, has he completed the opening lap in front. The conversion rate is not title-winning material.
Leclerc has now won eight grand prix during his Formula One career, including three in 2024
Hamilton, pictured climbing out of his car, retired early on a day to forget for the Englishman
The Mercedes car driven by 39-year-old Hamilton had to be taken away by a recovery truck
After crashing his car, Hamilton was given a ride on the back of a small motorbike in Austin
Norris, it should be said, has driven very well this season, with speed and skill, but it is at crunch moments he has blinked. In Saturday’s shortened race, he locked up at the death to fall from second place to third. Afterwards, he was still smiling. Had Lews Hamilton made the mistake, he’d have been as cheery as a morgue. These costly little slips kill the mood of the best.
The three weeks of inaction since the previous race in Singapore were least needed by Norris. His confidence was up there – he maintained his lead from pole – and crushed all opposition.
Reminders of pressure mounting at the climax of a tight contest are all around him. Brickbats are being thrown. Nobody is using the word ‘cheating’ but the crime is being mentioned in code by the chief protagonists.
Red Bull didn’t like McLaren’s rear wing. Too much flexing, they claimed. It has needed modifying, a changed made ahead of Singapore. Would it clip their progress here on a track where the old configuration would likely have conferred a performance advantage?
Perhaps so a bit, but Norris’s brilliant late charge suggested not much.
Leclerc pictured celebrating with his team after winning Sunday’s United States Grand Prix
Monegasque driver Leclerc was visibly thrilled following his impressive victory in Austin
Then the tit-for-tat had McLaren implying Red Bull regularly altered their ride height between qualifying and the race in strict breach of conditions. ‘Paranoia and moaning,’ rejoined Christian Horner.
His McLaren counterpart Brown responded by calling for Red Bull to prove they are as white as they claim by signing affidavits denying doddy fiddling inside their parked-up cars.
Horner and Brown went shooting together back in more companionable days. Now, you would not let them near guns within firing range of each other.
It was also a weekend for the last Briton to claim the world title, Hamilton.
He has won here a record five times in Austin, and six in all in America, the place he now counts as home. But he started the sprint in seventh, finished it sixth, qualified 19th, and was then the first man back into the paddock, his car in the gravel. ‘Sorry, guys,’ he said.
