Lando Norris shares why Charles Leclerc made him ‘struggle’ at the United States Grand Prix

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Lando Norris performed some solid damage limitation at the United States Grand Prix by following Max Verstappen home in second place.

The Briton spent much of his race trying to get past Charles Leclerc, whose defence of second place was admirable.

McLaren were never in the hunt for victory at the United States Grand Prix, and they weren’t helped by a double retirement during Saturday’s sprint race.

Norris now trails teammate Oscar Piastri by just 14 points in the drivers’ championship, with five events remaining.

It now feels like Verstappen could be a genuine threat to their hopes of a title double, having more than halved a 104-point deficit since the summer break.

Norris might be McLaren’s number two in qualifying, according to Red Bull, but momentum suggests that he’s the quicker of their two drivers currently.

Verstappen could save Norris’ title hopes by taking crucial points from Piastri. The outlook is as wide open as it has been during the current technical regulations.

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Lando Norris faced tyre ‘struggle’ while battling Charles Leclerc at the United States Grand Prix

McLaren’s plan is doomed to fail, according to Martin Brundle, who feels that having two drivers with such talent is almost impossible to work with. It’s something that is inevitably going to cause them more problems over the next six weeks.

Charles Leclerc has backed Piastri and believes that his advantage in the standings will be important by the end of the season.

Following Norris’ race-long battle with the Monegasque driver in Texas, he revealed how he faced a ‘struggle’ before getting past the Ferrari star.

“Finally. Finally,” he said in the official post-race interviews. “It took long enough. It was a good battle with Charles, he fought hard, and it was tough. We did everything we could. I thought we kind of had it easy in a way, after we got ahead, and then we did the overcut, or we went much longer.

“I expected a slightly easier second attempt to get through, but it wasn’t the case. Charles drove a very good race, it was good fun, good battles, so I have to take second. Not a lot more I could have done today. Out [of] the box, when the tyres are the freshest, then you want to push because you have the best chance.

“It’s also when the tyres get the hottest, so when I first tried, I just really started to struggle with the tyres. Charles was probably already in that kind of consistent point. I backed off quite a bit for a few laps, went again, and it worked. So, a good strategy, some good driving. A fun race.”

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Jolyon Palmer shares McLaren verdict on Max Verstappen’s pace at the United States Grand Prix

With the McLaren drivers now separated by such a small margin, it will be intriguing to see whether there are any team orders between now and the end of the season.

Red Bull are not going to relent in their charge, and might even bring further upgrades to their machine between now and the final round in Abu Dhabi.

Jolyon Palmer revealed how McLaren believe Verstappen’s car isn’t necessarily faster than theirs, but he’s extracting more from it at this stage of the campaign.

“It’s interesting that they say they think they had the pace of Max, as well,” he said on F1TV. “That feeling there that Max is winning these races, but he’s not necessarily driving the fastest car, even though it’s race after race.

“Sometimes he does by a small margin, but sometimes McLaren are still there. The gap is coming down.”