"If someone had told Max Verstappen, after his home race 49 days ago, that he would be a title contender by the end of the U.S. Grand Prix, his response would have been clear. "I would have told him he was an idiot," Verstappen said on Sunday, having completed a sprint and grand prix double at Austin's Circuit of the Americas to move to within 40 points of championship leader Oscar Piastri with five races and two sprints still to go."
"When you rewind back to Verstappen's home race at the end of August, it would have seemed like a foolish proposition indeed. Piastri had stood on top of the podium and it felt like a first F1 world championship was the Australian's to lose. McLaren teammate Lando Norris had not joined him up there: the Englishman finished his race that day hunched over on the sand dunes lining the Zandvoort circuit,"
"While Norris' chances appeared poor, Verstappen's seemed non-existent. But like the famous warning reads on the mirror of the Jeep being driven by the Jurassic Park protagonists as they're being chased by a t-rex: objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. It's a meme that has done the rounds across the Austin weekend. To its credit, McLaren had always claimed Verstappen would be a factor in the run-in, and the races since the Dutch GP have proven them to be correct."
Max Verstappen completed a sprint and grand prix double at Austin's Circuit of the Americas, moving to within 40 points of championship leader Oscar Piastri with five races and two sprints remaining. At the end of August he trailed by 104 points after Zandvoort, where Piastri won and Lando Norris suffered a late car failure that left him 34 points adrift. McLaren had predicted Verstappen would influence the run-in, and subsequent races — including a dominant victory at the Italian Grand Prix — have closed the gap. A recurring mirror-meme captured the sense that rivals were closer than they appeared.
Read at ESPN.com
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