Oscar Piastri issues Max Verstappen F1 title fight conclusion

Oscar Piastri believes Max Verstappen is no longer in contention to win the F1 drivers' championship this season. Piastri, who leads the title hunt, is 81 points ahead of the Dutchman with 11 rounds of the current campaign still to run. It leaves the Red Bull driver with a significant task in pursuit of a fifth consecutive crown, a feat that would match the record set by Michael Schumacher with Ferrari between 2000 and 2004. Piastri's McLaren team-mate Lando Norris sits ahead of Verstappen and 16 points adrift of the championship leader. McLaren has won 10 out of the 13 races staged so far and now looks likely to take both titles. When asked if he thinks it's now a two-horse race for the title between Piastri and Norris, the Australian told media including RacingNews365 : “I suppose so.  “The last few weekends anyway, it’s been Lando and I. “I expect our competition to still be strong and put up a good fight, especially at certain tracks through the rest of the year. “Whether that comes from Max, Ferrari or Mercedes or someone else maybe, we never really know. “I’m not too concerned about what happens in that. “I’m just trying to win each race and extend the lead. Clearly Lando and I are in the same car, which is the best, and you know he’s naturally going to be the close competition.”

Oscar Piastri mindful of rival threat at Hungarian GP

Round 14 of the campaign takes place at the Hungaroring, where Piastri claimed his first grand prix win 12 months ago. As he looks to extend his title lead over Norris into the summer break, the 24-year-old is wary the competition could pose a threat during the weekend. “Hungary has been, historically, a good track for us as a team - certainly the two years I've been with the team,” he said. “I expect us to be strong again this weekend. But there have been tracks this year where we thought we would be very strong compared to our competition, and they were closer than we thought.  “There have been other tracks where we thought our competition would be very close and actually the gap was bigger than we thought. “You never know, but I expect us to still be at the front.”