F1 title going down to wire with FIVE drivers battling it out over six races

There are a whopping FIVE drivers still mathematically in the fight for the Formula One title with six rounds remaining.

Max Verstappen enters this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Texas as the number one bounty hunter, holding wanted posters for McLaren gunslingers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

Afterall, the Dutchman has won two out of the last three Grands Prix and narrowed the gap to championship leader Piastri to 66 points.

It comes after sheer domination this season from McLaren with its drivers winning 12 of the opening 15 rounds.

But there are two other contenders that could still scrap for the crown if the wildest sequence of events somehow became reality.

George Russell and Charles Leclerc are the shock wild cards still in with a whisper rather than a shout of becoming world champion.

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SunSport has delved into how it could be done, ranking the least from the most likely to be crowned king of F1 this season.

5. Charles Leclerc

The Monegasque driver is fifth in the table, 64 points behind George Russell.

Leclerc jokingly roared: “Let’s go babyyyyyy” on Instagram when he discovered the news that he can still win the drivers’ championship.

Just a couple of minor details need to happen if he is to be crowned champ, including winning ALL of the remaining sprints and races.

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His team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who is in sixth, would have to finish second in remaining races and sprints.

McLaren duo Norris and Piastri would also not score another point and Verstappen would have to suffer three DNFs – easy right!

4. George Russell

The Mercedes driver’s chances are slighter better than Leclerc’s, after his first win of the season in Singapore last time out.

He would have to win in at least five of the next six races and finish in second in the remaining one.

He would also have to win at least one of the remaining sprint races and come at least second in the other two.

Norris and Piastri would both not be able to stand on the podium in any of the final races and the Aussie would have to DNF at least once.

Meanwhile Verstappen could win one race but would have to finish P2 in the other four and a P5 or lower in one.

Are your brains fried yet?

3. Max Verstappen

You can write four-time world champion Max Verstappen off at your own peril with him sitting in third and behind Norris by 41 points.

The Dutchman has once again been the man to rise above his machine to keep his title hopes alive.

He has won two out of the last three races and has finished on the podium nine times overall so far this season.

He does not need either of the McLaren drivers to DNF in the final races.

If Verstappen wins all remaining races plus sprints and Oscar has one P2 and 6 P3s in the races plus P2s in all the sprints then the Dutchman can be champion.

Verstappen also has greater title battle experience, which stretches back to when he controversially edged out Lewis Hamilton in 2021.

4. Lando Norris

The British 25-year-old is just 22-points off his team-mate Piastri as the title run-in begins at the Circuit of Americas on Friday.

He just needs to beat his team-mate and fend off Verstappen and he will win his first ever title.

Easier said than done though with unflappable-Aussie Piastri very rarely making mistakes.

Norris has also had a few hiccups himself, such as in Canada when he was left out of the racing after crashing into the back of Piastri.

There’s also been some errors from his own team, like slow pit stops in Monza which prompted team order chaos.

Norris has shown he is getting his elbows out though as he slid into Piastri in Singapore after a bump with Verstappen ahead of him knocked his car sideways.

Norris trailed Piastri by 25 points before the race, and narrowed that lead by only three points after he finished third and Piastri in fourth.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said after Singapore: “It’s going to come to a situation where a few points will matter.

“Then they’ll start to calculate and back-calculate and I guess the elbows are going to come out a bit more. That’s when it starts to get interesting.”

5. Oscar Piastri

The Aussie has been cool-as-a-cucumber this season, apart from in the last two races.

He has won seven races this season and finished on the podium a whopping 14 times in total.

He has had a minor wobble in recent weeks though, with a DNF in Azerbaijan and finishing outside of the podium places in Singapore after that.

Read more on the Scottish Sun

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It is still his title to lose though, in what is only his third season in the sport.