Lando Norris is the Formula 1 title favorite ahead of a three-way decider in Abu Dhabi \u2014 which also means he has the most to lose.<\/p>\n
He and teammate Oscar Piastri are each looking to win their first title, but Norris saw his comfortable 24-point lead entering last week\u2019s Qatar Grand Prix whittled down to 12 by the end of it as Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen surged back into the fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, I have the most to lose because I am the one at the top,\u201d Norris said Thursday. \u201cI\u2019ll do my best to stay there till the end of the year, a few more days. At the same time, if it doesn\u2019t go my way, then I\u2019ll try again next year. It\u2019ll hurt probably for a little while, but that\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norris fastest – but not by much<\/p>\n
The only way Norris can lose the title is if he finishes Sunday\u2019s race outside the top three. His pace in Friday\u2019s first practice session suggested that\u2019s unlikely as was fastest ahead of Verstappen, though only by .008 of a second. Charles Leclerc was third, 0.016 off the pace for Ferrari.<\/p>\n
Still, the session wasn\u2019t a reliable guide to race pace. It was held in daytime, not under lights, and only 11 of the 20 regular drivers took part. Piastri was among those to give up his car as teams pushed to meet a rule requiring them to field young or inexperienced drivers in a certain number of practice sessions each year.<\/p>\n
Norris has denied he\u2019ll ask Piastri to help out to at least ensure one McLaren driver becomes champion if it seems Verstappen will take the title.<\/p>\n
Verstappen\u2019s chances were revived when McLaren botched a strategy call in Qatar, one race after Norris and Piastri were disqualified in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Relaxed Verstappen<\/p>\n
The one contender who\u2019s been in a final-race decider before, Verstappen said he\u2019s \u201cjust enjoying being here\u201d in a season where his title defense often seemed impossible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have four of those at home, so it\u2019s nice to add a fifth,\u201d he said Thursday, looking at the trophy standing next to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve already achieved everything that I wanted to achieve in F1 and everything is just a bonus. I just keep doing it because I love it and I enjoy it and that\u2019s also how I go into this weekend. Have a good time out there, try to maximize the result.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verstappen was 104 points off the lead at one stage, and wrote his chances off again when he wasn\u2019t competitive in qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix, three races ago.<\/p>\n
Piastri clings on<\/p>\n
Piastri had a 34-point lead in August and seemed on target to become the first Australian champion in 45 years. He hasn\u2019t won in eight races since.<\/p>\n
With only a slim shot at the title, Piastri could face the dilemma of whether to sacrifice his own bid for Norris. \u201cI don\u2019t really have an answer until I know what\u2019s expected of me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Piastri showed good pace to take second spot in Qatar last week, though he was left \u201cspeechless\u201d after a race dominated by McLaren\u2019s wrong strategy call.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I need a fair few things to happen this weekend to come out champion,\u201d he said, \u201dbut I\u2019ll just make sure I\u2019m in the right place at the right time and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP auto racing: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/auto-racing<\/p>\n
James Ellingworth, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris is the Formula 1 title favorite ahead of a three-way decider in Abu Dhabi \u2014 which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-327029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}