‘Lately, he’s been really nice!’ - Max Verstappen reacts to Toto Wolff’s title claim

Max Verstappen has given his reaction to Toto Wolff’s claim that this year’s battle for the world championship is already over.

Verstappen stormed to his third victory in four races with a commanding drive at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Dutchman sits 13 points clear of Sergio Perez in the drivers’ championship, with the gap smaller than it should be given Verstappen’s DNF in Australia.

Speaking after the race at Suzuka, Wolff explained why he expects the remainder of the year to be a repeat of 2023.

“No one is going to catch Max this year,” Wolff said in Japan. “His driving and the car are just spectacular. You can see the way he manages the tyres and basically this season now is best of the rest.

“That’s the fact, that is all, but hopefully we can catch up to the McLarens and to the Ferraris and fight for P2. This is what it is this year and what is was last year and we had a P2 last year.”

Wolff’s recent comments continue a long run of praise from the Mercedes boss.

The Austrian has made it clear that he would love to sign Verstappen as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement for the 2025 campaign.

Verstappen was asked about Wolff’s recent comments in the post-race FIA press conference.

The Red Bull driver acknowledged Wolff being “really nice” recently and “saying a lot of nice things about me”.

“Lately, Toto has been really nice, saying a lot of nice things about me,” he said. “No, I don't know. It's still a very long season. I don't want to think about the rest of the season too much. I really want to approach it race by race.

“I know there will be tracks coming up that might not be so favourable for us, but then, of course, when we do get to tracks where we know that we can be quick, we have to really take advantage of it and score the maximum amount of points as a team, and that's what we'll continue to try and do.

“And then, of course, I think we know that we get to tracks where maybe it's a bit more difficult we have to try and maximise that as well, where maybe other teams can win as well.”