Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer believes Max Verstappen has fallen out of the drivers' title fight due to "bad luck" over recent races.
The four-time world champion heads into this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix 69 points adrift of Oscar Piastri, who holds a narrow eight-point lead over team-mate Lando Norris.
Verstappen requires a sensational second half of the season to drag himself back into the fight or for both McLaren drivers to suffer non-point finishes.
Until the last few races, the Dutchman had kept himself in with a chance of a fifth consecutive title, despite possessing a weaker car compared to the MCL39.
However, he lost big points in Barcelona after receiving a 10-second time penalty, in Austria after being crashed into by Kimi Antonelli and in Silverstone when unexpected heavy rain fell.
In Palmer's eyes, several external factors have gone against the 27-year-old, setting up an all-McLaren scrap for the championship.
"So I was looking through this, and actually, Max could so easily still be in this title fight as well, but those recent races have really put him out," Palmer said on the F1 Nation podcast.
"If you think of the points that he's lost through kind of a bit of bad luck, really, you've got a whack in Austria, as well as an unlucky qualifying. That's cost him 15 points. The safety car in Barcelona, and then, his subsequent red mist.
"But without the safety car, he's an easy third. And then you've got the rain falling that wasn't forecast at Silverstone when he had done the hard work to put a low downforce Red Bull on pole.
"If those hadn't have happened, that's 44 more points for Max, and he'd be within a race win still, or on a race win of the McLarens.
"So, I feel like he's been quite unlucky in the recent races to be as far a drift as he is. But it does mean that the McLarens are in a straight fight now, surely."
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