Brundle highlights 'clinical' McLaren difference: 'Max Verstappen knows that too'

Martin Brundle has underlined a key distinction between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, one he believes Max Verstappen is acutely aware of. The Former F1 driver-turned commentator feels the Australian is "fractionally more effective and clinical" than his McLaren team-mate when going wheel-to-wheel with the four-time F1 drivers' champion. It is a claim he has evidenced with how the two drivers fought against the Dutchman during the Miami Grand Prix. The 65-year-old contrasted and compared their approaches to Verstappen in Florida, pointing out how Piastri coaxed the Red Bull driver into a mistake. "Once Piastri had dispatched Antonelli for second place, he set about hunting down the leader Verstappen with some gusto," Brundle wrote in his Sky Sports column. "Piastri has great race craft and it's fractionally more effective and clinical than Norris, and Verstappen knows that too. "On lap 14 Piastri would eventually coerce Verstappen onto the defensive into turn one, both in terms of forcing him offline and tight to the inside and having to brake too late. "Piastri instinctively saw the Red Bull slide developing and adjusted his position perfectly before ducking underneath and seizing a lead he would never relinquish."

Lacking 'tactical pressure'

To many, the way in which Verstappen races the two McLaren drivers also differs, but Brundle nonetheless zeroed in on how Norris was unable to inflict the same "tactical pressure" as his team-mate. Once the 25-year-old had atoned for his error in overtaking the RB21 off track, the other MCL39 was a considerable distance up the road. "Meanwhile Norris made his way past the Williams of Alex Albon and both Mercedes of Antonelli and George Russell, in some style it must be said," the Briton stated. "But Norris couldn't quite put Verstappen under the same tactical pressure as Piastri did, and by the time he finally slipped by for good on lap 18, having had to yield back the position to Verstappen on the previous lap for overtaking off track, his team-mate Piastri was nine seconds up the road."