Days after celebrating the retention of their constructors’ world championship title, McLaren’s duelling duo of series leader Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will be looking warily in their rear-view mirrors this weekend for Max Verstappen.

With six rounds of the world championship remaining, the top team’s title contenders are separated by just 22 points with the four-time champion adrift by 63 points, but revelling in his recent form after beating both McLarens in the last three races.

In that time, he has reduced a 104-point deficit to Piastri at the start of September by 41 points to turn a seemingly lost cause into a thrilling late, if unexpected, charge for a fifth title. If he succeeds, it will be a record for overturning a deficit.

Former champion Jacques Villneuve, who took the

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