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Max Verstappen’s third win in four races at Sunday's US Grand Prix has reignited the Formula 1 title fight, heading into the final stretch of the season. Following the Dutchman's dominant COTA weekend, Fernando Alonso picked Verstappen as the favorite in a tense title run ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
With Piastri on 346 points, Norris on 332, and Verstappen climbing to 306, the championship battle is now a three-way contest between the McLaren duo and the Red Bull star. Speaking after the race, the Aston Martin driver showered praise on Verstappen.
“He’s a four-time world champion, first of all. That’s not a casual thing. He’s one of the best drivers in the history of the sport. He’s able to extract the maximum from the car. When the car is a dominant car, he can win the championship and break some records. And when the car is not that good or not the fastest, he still provides the good lap in qualifying, or the good race, the good fight,” Alonso said (via RN365).
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Fernando Alonso’s words echo Max Verstappen’s excellence. The 2023 F1 season saw him win 19 of the 22 races, including a 10-race streak. The story is different this time around.
The MCL39 has set the benchmark this year, with McLaren winning 12 of the first 15 races and securing seven one-two finishes before the summer break. What was a 97-point lead in July has now shrunk to just 40, with four races and two sprints remaining.
Max Verstappen’s late-season surge, featuring pole-to-flag victories at Monza, Baku, and Austin, and a solid second place at Singapore - his most difficult circuit - shows a driver who maximizes every available opportunity. Despite Red Bull’s RB21 being inconsistent early in the year, the reigning champion has steered his team back into contention.
“This year he's obviously fighting against a superior car, which is the McLaren. But if it comes to the last race or whatever and they are tight on points, maybe in that moment he becomes the man to follow. The two McLarens have enough advantage on the car to fight between them. But, with Max, that can happen, as we saw in 2021 when the car was a little bit less performing than the Mercedes. He still won the championship in Abu Dhabi,” Alonso added.
The two-time champion has always shared mutual respect with Max Verstappen - both fierce competitors and aggressive racers. For him, McLaren may have the faster car, but Red Bull has a driver with championship instincts.
Max Verstappen sees ‘the chance’ for his fifth world title
Red Bull’s continuous upgrades on the RB21 have played a key role in the title challenge. After struggling for balance in the first half of the season, the team’s Monza upgrades have transformed the car. McLaren, meanwhile, has already diverted resources toward the 2026 regulation overhaul, leaving them vulnerable in the short term.
This dynamic has given Max Verstappen the momentum to believe in a title comeback. After his COTA victory, he remained composed yet quietly optimistic about his chances.
“The chance is there. We just need to try to deliver these weekends to the end of the year, so yeah, we’ll at least try whatever we can. It’s exciting, and I’m just very excited to (get to) the end,” he said (via F1's official website).
It remains an uphill task. Even if Oscar Piastri finishes second in every remaining Grand Prix and sprint, he would finish with 432 points. If Verstappen were to win all of them, he would reach 422. But as the 2021 season proved, numbers alone never define F1.
Next up is the Mexico City Grand Prix at the high-altitude Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, where Max Verstappen has historically thrived. With five wins in nine appearances, he remains the most successful driver in the track’s history. A sixth victory this weekend would not only tighten the title fight further but also remind McLaren that the reigning champion is still the benchmark when it matters the most.
