Ferrari victory DENIED as F1 champion steals win

This year’s Formula 1 championship battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris has become an absorbing ‘cat and mouse’ contest.Evidence of that is how a US Grand Prix dominated by a Ferrari one-two will actually be remembered by the incredible racing between the chief championship rivals for the final podium spot.Verstappen’s Red Bull just about escaped Austin with a crucial third place after Norris’ slightly controversial five-second penalty for overtaking off the circuit.It gives the Dutchman a little more wiggle room in the final five grands prix, as the world champion seeks to defend his title by limping over the line given his and Red Bull’s drop off from the front of the pack since the early part of the season.History doesn’t repeat but it does rhyme so the cliche goes, and it’s now 18 years since a similar ‘cat and mouse’ chase ended with a world champion just about getting the job done to defend his world championship.In fact he’s still around now. Fernando Alonso still blasts around the track longing for a car as good as the Renault R26 in the hope that he can pick up a third title that has cruelly eluded him since Sunday October 22 2006.Like Verstappen now, Alonso started that season well. Very well. He won six of the first nine races, finishing second in the other three and having a comfortable championship lead over Michael Schumacher of 25 points, which in today’s scoring system was the equivalent of a 63-point lead – and in an era when finishing second in a race only dropped you two points to the GP winner.This run ended in the USA at the 10th round when at Indianapolis he finished fifth – although Alonso never did quite enjoy the circuit. He was on hand though to grab another second spot in France behind Schumacher and the title was really his to lose. Then, Renault’s world was turned on its head.The season was dominated by the controversy around the ‘mass damper’ device on the R26 previously declared legal by the FIA but was suddenly banned at the German Grand Prix. Renault had designed their car around the component inside the front nose, and claimed its removal would cost them 0.3 seconds per lap. It soon showed.