{"id":258847,"date":"2025-11-03T03:12:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T03:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/258847\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T03:12:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T03:12:13","slug":"lando-norris-oscar-piastri-or-max-verstappen-who-looks-stronger-at-each-of-the-final-four-rounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/258847\/","title":{"rendered":"Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri or Max Verstappen \u2013 who looks stronger at each of the final four rounds?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">A couple of months ago, both the Drivers&#8217; and Teams&#8217; Championships looked like foregone conclusions. Oscar Piastri had just won the Dutch Grand Prix \u2013 and with McLaren team mate Lando Norris suffering a mechanical failure when running second, the Australian&#8217;s advantage over Norris ballooned to 34 points. Max Verstappen, meanwhile, was a monstrous 104 adrift in P3&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">But while <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiTWNMYXJlbl9saW5rX2NsaWNrZWQiLCJjbGlja1RleHQiOnRydWUsInBhdGgiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5mb3JtdWxhMS5jb20vZW4vdGVhbXMvbWNsYXJlbiIsInBhdGhUeXBlIjoiaW50ZXJuYWwifQ==\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/teams\/mclaren\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">McLaren<\/a> converted that advantage <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiYnkgd3JhcHBpbmcgdXAgdGhlIGRlZmVuY2Ugb2YgdGhlIFRlYW0ncyBDaGFtcGlvbnNoaXBfbGlua19jbGlja2VkIiwiY2xpY2tUZXh0Ijp0cnVlLCJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZm9ybXVsYTEuY29tL2VuL2xhdGVzdC9hcnRpY2xlL2phY3F1ZXMtZWZmaWNpZW5jeS1kZWNpc2l2ZS1sZWFkZXJzaGlwLWFuZC1kcml2ZXItaGFybW9ueS1ob3ctbWNsYXJlbi1zZWFsZWQuSktNZG1mbDQ2ekRyazhzcktmSHA3IiwicGF0aFR5cGUiOiJpbnRlcm5hbCJ9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/latest\/article\/jacques-efficiency-decisive-leadership-and-driver-harmony-how-mclaren-sealed.JKMdmfl46zDrk8srKfHp7\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">by wrapping up the defence of the Team&#8217;s Championship<\/a> three races later in Singapore, a plot twist had been written in courtesy of <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiUmVkIEJ1bGxfbGlua19jbGlja2VkIiwiY2xpY2tUZXh0Ijp0cnVlLCJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZm9ybXVsYTEuY29tL2VuL3RlYW1zL3JlZC1idWxsLXJhY2luZyIsInBhdGhUeXBlIjoiaW50ZXJuYWwifQ==\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/teams\/red-bull-racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Red Bull<\/a> and <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiVmVyc3RhcHBlbl9saW5rX2NsaWNrZWQiLCJjbGlja1RleHQiOnRydWUsInBhdGgiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5mb3JtdWxhMS5jb20vZW4vZHJpdmVycy9tYXgtdmVyc3RhcHBlbiIsInBhdGhUeXBlIjoiaW50ZXJuYWwifQ==\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/drivers\/max-verstappen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Verstappen<\/a>. With their rivals fully focused on development for the new-for-2026 regulations, Red Bull opted to divert a bit more cash to this year&#8217;s car \u2013 and it was paying off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"typography-module_body-s-regular__ul7F5 typography-module_md_body-m-regular__d9VRg typography-module_lg_body-l-regular__dPa5z\">Verstappen won three races in four weekends and was forcing his way into title contention while <a class=\"text-brand-hot-red underline decoration-1 hover:decoration-[3px]\" data-f1rd-a7s-click=\"rich_text_atom_click\" data-f1rd-a7s-context=\"eyJhY3Rpb25UeXBlIjoiUGlhc3RyaV9saW5rX2NsaWNrZWQiLCJjbGlja1RleHQiOnRydWUsInBhdGgiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy5mb3JtdWxhMS5jb20vZW4vZHJpdmVycy9vc2Nhci1waWFzdHJpIiwicGF0aFR5cGUiOiJpbnRlcm5hbCJ9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formula1.com\/en\/drivers\/oscar-piastri\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Piastri<\/a> was going the other way. Having been on the podium in 14 of the first 16 races of 2025, Piastri is now on a run of four races outside the top three and has lost his grip on the title lead for the first time since Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A couple of months ago, both the Drivers&#8217; and Teams&#8217; Championships looked like foregone conclusions. Oscar Piastri had&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-258847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}