Sir Lewis Hamilton is competing against the two best drivers of the new generation, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, for the title. However, the seven-time champion is a little too far away from the championship contention at the moment. But McLaren and Red Bull are closing in on an exciting battle awaiting in the second half of the 2024 season. When the Dutch racer won seven races quite early in the season, it felt like the current season was another foregone conclusion like the last two seasons. Verstappen has been winning the titles on another level of dominating fashion. In 2022, the reigning champion won 15 races, whereas his team won 17, as Sergio Perez managed to win a couple of races.
Then, last year, the Dutch racer broke his own record for most wins in a single season with 19 GP wins. However, the ongoing season has not been such a straightforward domination for the Red Bull racer and the team. Each of the Ferrari drivers, McLaren, as well as Mercedes duos, have won at least one race this season. However, Lewis Hamilton, who had two wins in the last three races, said Norris can beat Verstappen this year for the title.
Can McLaren & Lando Norris Beat Max Verstappen And Red Bull This Year?
Recently, GPblog.com quoted Lewis Hamilton saying, “McLaren is a highly performing team, and they can fight for the championship. It’s not impossible.” Despite winning two of the last three races, the seven-time champion is a little far from the title race. He doesn’t play a significant role there. But Hamilton feels suddenly the lead of Max Verstappen can disappear. However, it will take a small miracle or something like that for the Red Bull rivals, especially McLaren, to do it. Lewis Hamilton recalled a time when he was in a position where he was some 40 points behind. But he believes “70 is a big number.” At present, Lando Norris is 78 points behind the three-time reigning champion.
Moreover, Hamilton feels McLaren will have to do a miracle “Against a car that has almost a 100% record.” However, the Mercedes superstar also added that Red Bull might have “Dropped down slightly in the last few races.” Anyway, the seven-time champion feels it might be a huge challenge for the Norris-Piastri duo but they can indeed fight for the title. After all, the McLaren drivers are pretty close to each other, whereas, Max Verstappen needs to do everything on his own as it seems. After the Belgian GP, the gap between McLaren and Red Bull is now down to 42 points. Hence, the British team can surely fight for the constructor title.
Lewis Hamilton Gets The Best Vote In Belgium
Albeit George Russell seemed to cross the finish line before anyone else at Spa this year, later he lost his place at the top due to an underweight car. Initially, the Mercedes team was celebrating for it was one-two finish after many races. But as FIA disqualified Russell for the underweight car, they judged Lewis Hamilton victorious.
Hence, the seven-time champion enjoyed his second victory in the last three races. Later, the F1 Power Rankings Jury, as per GPblog.com, rated the 39-year-old British racer as the best driver in the 2024 Belgian GP. Lewis Hamilton secured 9.2, whereas his teammate got 8.6 in second place. Max Verstappen dropped down to P6. He got 7.4.
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