Comeback too late, but Verstappen can disrupt F1 title fight

Listening to new Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies being interviewed on the grid at Monza, where he spoke of how Max Verstappen had set a difficult new target by leading the set-up of the tricky RB21 into new territory, I just had this feeling that he was going to win.

- David Tremayne

As it turned out he didn't just do that on Sept 7, but he also decimated the field.

On a day when the team from the United Kingdom's Milton Keynes had their once-unapproachable McLaren rivals from Woking running far back from their slipstream, Verstappen's lofty target wasn't just realistic. He hit the bull's eye virtually every lap.

After the start it seemed that Lando Norris, so desperate for solid points after his Dutch Grand Prix oil pipe failure the previous week left him 34 points adrift of teammate and points leader Oscar Piastri, had the luck running his way.

He lost out to Verstappen in the first corner and then, having to back off after the Red Bull driver cut part of the chicane kerb, but Norris led him into the same corner a lap later after Verstappen was instructed by his team to give the place back. Now watch Norris go, we thought, while Piastri fights over third place with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

But the die was cast when Verstappen outbraked Norris with spectacular ease there on lap 4, and that was the chance of a McLaren victory well and truly mothballed.