Lando Norris gets Max Verstappen help in title fight as Oscar Piastri battle takes turn

Max Verstappen has drawn from his title fight with Lewis Hamilton in 2021 to offer some advice to Lando Norris after the Dutch Grand Prix. The McLaren racer was on track for a second-place finish behind team-mate and championship rival Oscar Piastri before a mechanical failure triggered a late DNF.

Norris now heads into the Italian Grand Prix looking to overcome a 34-point Drivers' Championship deficit with only nine race weekends remaining. Worse still, McLaren's immense pace advantage, combined with Piastri's unwavering consistency mean that the Brit will likely need to string together at least six or seven victories to wrestle his way back into contention.

Fortunately, Norris has received some advice from four-time world champion Verstappen, who experienced a number of significant point swings and dramatic flashpoints in his titanic battle with Hamilton in 2021. The Dutchman failed to finish in Baku, Silverstone and Monza, but came back to win his maiden World Championship on the final lap in Abu Dhabi.

Asked what advice he could offer to Norris, he replied: "You have to keep working hard and try to win, simple as that. Especially when you're team-mates as well and you are in the same car. It's probably a little bit more complicated than when it is two different teams.

"But there is still a lot of races, and you can see that things can swing like, as you said. Even if you get a mechanical failure or not, it is out of your control, so yes, it's tough, but [there are] enough races to either turn it around or not. Time will tell."

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Despite the cruel nature of his DNF, Norris kept a level head after climbing out of the cockpit. The Bristol-born driver opted to take the positives from the race weekend, and was keen to leave the Dutch GP behind him and look ahead to next weekend's battle at Monza.

"The pace is there," he said, "I was quick today. I mean, it's impossible to overtake here, so [with] a good race today all I was really hoping for was to be safe within five seconds for the most part of the race. I was happy that I could stay within one-and-a-half, two [tenths] for the majority. It doesn't look it, but that's an impressive race around here from our side with how much dirty air [there is] and you struggle with the tyres and tyre temperatures while following.

"So it was a positive race, but it didn't mean anything. I couldn't get past, Oscar drove a good race, he deserved it today. But it's just not my weekend. I was unlucky yesterday with the fight for pole, unlucky today, but that's life, I just take it on the chin and move on."