Martin Brundle highlights McLaren ‘curveball’ threat as Lando Norris warned

Martin Brundle believes the cool conditions at the Las Vegas Grand Prix could prove to be a “curveball” for Lando Norris and McLaren.

Given the night racing conditions and the low levels of grip on the streets of Las Vegas, Brundle believes that weekend could prove to be more difficult for the team than in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, to finish the season.

Martin Brundle warns McLaren of ‘curveball’ venue in Las Vegas

The final three races of the season will come all together in a triple-header of race weekends, starting in Las Vegas in just under a fortnight.

After his Sprint and Grand Prix win double in Brazil, combined with a DNF and fifth place for title rival Oscar Piastri, Norris now holds a 24-point lead in the standings heading into the final three rounds.

While the weekend’s results make Norris a significant title favourite from this point, Brundle warned that any reliability problem, as Norris faced at Zandvoort, or a collision, as happened between the two McLaren drivers in Montreal, could turn the title race on its head once again.

“The king of the weekend was Lando Norris with pole position and victory in both the Sprint and the main race, but with nothing like the dominance of Mexico two weeks earlier,” Brundle noted in his Sky Sports column.

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“His highlight of the weekend for me was the final qualifying run in Q3 after he’d wasted his first set of new tyres with a lock up into the first corner.

“This was a big pressure moment, the pack was intensely close, and he delivered a measured but fast lap, fastest in all three sectors and through the top speed trap, to claim pole position which seems essential these days for victory. Sunday was the seventh consecutive race won from pole.

“Norris would make two perfect starts, and indeed several safety car restarts, to win both races in style and end up with a full haul of 33 points in total, leaving him virtually the equivalent of a race ahead in points terms over Oscar Piastri and two races ahead of Max Verstappen, with three GPs and a Sprint to go.

“But a shunt or reliability issue can turn that around in a heartbeat, and although I would expect McLaren to be very strong in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, it’s the cold slippery surface of Vegas which could throw them a curveball.”

Las Vegas will host the next round of the season from 20-22 November, with the race taking place under the lights on a Saturday night in Sin City.

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