Max Verstappen seriously impressed by 23-year-old driver last weekend in Brazil

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Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was full of praise for McLaren racer Lando Norris after their brief battle in Brazil last weekend.

Verstappen was speaking to the press, via the Chequered Flag Podcast, after taking a 17^th win of the season at Interlagos.

The extremely quick Dutchman was under pressure for one of the few times this season during the first few laps of Sunday’s race.

He got off the line brilliantly for the first restart but was quickly thwarted by a red flag after a collision that eliminated Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen from the race.

In that getaway, Lando Norris jumped from sixth to second and for the second restart in Brazil, he was Verstappen’s nearest rival.

The pair both got away well again and for a few laps, it looked like Norris’s McLaren might have a real chance of reeling in Verstappen’s Red Bull.

The Brit – who has estimated earnings of £311,000-a-week – even made a couple of late lunges to try and unsettle his rival.

However, he put everything the car had into those first few laps and had to let Verstappen go as they both comfortably finished in the top two.

Norris is still desperate for that first race win, but with Verstappen driving like this, he could end up waiting an awful long time to stand on the top step of the podium.

Verstappen hails Norris in Brazil

Speaking about his good friend and racing rival, Verstappen said: “Yeah, I think for every stint for the first half of it Lando [Norris] was doing the same times as me.

“But, it was always the last five to ten laps where it seemed like we had a little more pace than McLaren today and we could extend our gap a little bit.

“So, that was definitely positive for us today but he gave it a good run. That lap where I had to defend, it was close that he got by me, but also Lando realised that I had to save my tyres to make sure that we made it to the end of the stint in the best possible way.

Are you looking forward to racing more with Lando in the future as he looks like your closest challenger right now?

“Yeah, but I’m not surprised, I know how good Lando is, it’s nice to see him there, he deserves that as well and McLaren deserves that and hopefully we’ll have many more battles.”

Verstappen and Norris may have had a short battle in Brazil, but they’re likely to be racing against each other in F1 for years to come.

The challenge for Norris is to find a car that can keep up with the Red Bull in the future.

Christian Horner and Adrian Newey have likely been working on their 2024 car for some time now knowing how much of an advantage they had over the rest of the field this year.

McLaren have made huge strides this season but might be worried about the potential difference in pace going into next year.