Villeneuve: Verstappen will start playing on Norris' nerves

Norris could've ruled out Verstappen from the 2025 F1 Drivers' Championship fight had he outscored the Dutchman by nine points or more.

But that was not the case, as Verstappen won the race, with Norris gifting him the lead after an over-aggressive and poorly calculated defense move, which meant the Championship leader missed his braking, running wide and losing out to Verstappen as well as Mercedes' George Russell.

While Norris recovered to finish second, both he and teammate Oscar Piastri were disqualified as post-race inspections of their MCL39s revealed that their floor planks were overly worn out.

Analyzing the dynamic of the battle between Verstappen and Norris, the 1997 F1 Champion, Jacques Villeneuve, said, "Norris drove well against Verstappen last year when he was hunting him down. He's been driving well since then. He's been driving well since he took the lead again this season.

"There was that mistake at the start of that first corner, but his start itself was good," the Canadian went on. "He was super aggressive on Verstappen.

"We've never seen him that aggressive. So, his elbows are out. He's ready to bring the fight to Verstappen, which is good to see. That's fun.

"But knowing now that Verstappen is less than a win away, that will start playing on the nerves. But he seems to have been okay with that," Villeneuve maintained.

While Verstappen closed in on Norris in the Drivers' Championship after McLaren's Las Vegas double disqualification, he is now level on points with Piastri, but Villeneuve believes the Championship leader is the one who lost out more.

He also explained how McLaren dug themselves into a hole in Las Vegas, which ended with disaster; he said: "Rules are rules.

"Other teams have been caught this year and last year. F1 is all about playing with the limits, and sometimes you make a mistake, and it happens.

"It was not intentional. McLaren have apologized. There was never any suggestion that this was cheating. The FIA has made clear it was unintentional.

"What I meant by playing with the limits is if you're allowed to have one millimeter, you try to bring it as close to one as you can. But sometimes you make a mistake. They were not pushing the limits. That normally happens when there's a wet weekend, because you don't get all the full running.

"So, when you don't get that kind of running, you don't get the full tank run, the track is not fully rubbered in, you don't have the same speeds. Then you get into the race, and if you're too close to that limit, you can get caught out.

"I think they've realized during the race because they told Norris to slow down," the retired F1 driver noted. "They could see on the data that they were moving up and down a little bit more than they expected.

"That's why you have rules, and sometimes you'll get caught out only because you want to be as close as you can be to that limit. That's how you go and win. But when you go the other way, the cost is super high.

"When you see how quick Verstappen was, you have to play with that limit. Unless you play with that limit, then you won't be running at the front. When teams got caught earlier in the season, it didn't matter too much. When it's at the end of a season in a fight for the championship, it becomes bigger.

"It's part and parcel of racing, of F1, of being on the edge and looking for excellence. Sometimes you go to the other side.

"The driver who lost the least was Piastri. Norris lost more than Piastri," Villeneuve claimed. "Without the penalty, the gap between Piastri and Norris would have been bigger.

"So for him [Piastri], the disqualification was a good thing because he's actually closer to the Championship leader than he would have been," he concluded.

(Quotes from CanadaCasino.ca)