British racing driver Jamie Chadwick has backed Max Verstappen to fight McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris for the F1 drivers' title, insisting that it is "game time again".
Piastri crashing out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix has blown the championship wide-open with seven rounds remaining, especially as Verstappen claimed an emphatic victory in Baku.
The four-time world champion mastered tricky conditions to claim pole position, while all his rivals faltered – Piastri and Charles Leclerc crashed, Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q2 and Norris made multiple errors in Q3.
He converted pole position into victory with ease to move to back-to-back race wins, and now finds himself just 69 points behind Piastri.
Despite Red Bull's difficulties for much of the season, Verstappen has been backed by many as being back in the title fight, with Chadwick having noticed the Dutchman having a "spring in his step again".
"No notes for Max," Chadwick began on the Sky F1 Show podcast. "It was phenomenal. I think that's obviously where he thrives in those tricky conditions.
"But still, they've clearly found something with the car, which is great because that's given him sort of a car that he can compete at the front.
"But even when it's tough, he always seems to excel. And that's what makes him, in my opinion, in the current crop, the greatest we have. And I think it's incredible to see. It's interesting now the title fight, because it's a lot of points. He's 69 points away.
"I think there's just under 200 left. So it's a big, big ask, but I would never rule him out, and also, he's not ruling himself out. He kind of smiled about it at the weekend and said, it's a lot of points. But never say never. And I like that.
"I think he's got this sort of spring in his step again. We saw this demotivated sort of lull in his atmosphere and vibe earlier in the year, and now it's game time again. He's got that kind of spring in his step and he wants to go after it."
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Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding, as they look back on the Azerbaijan Grand Prix! Oscar Piastri's shock Baku crashes are a major talking point, as is whether Max Verstappen has drawn himself back into the F1 title fight.
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