Lando Norris has admitted it 'hurts' having to congratulate Max Verstappen after the Red Bull driver won the F1 Drivers' Championship for the fourth year in a row.
Verstappen was crowned champion after finishing fifth at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, with Norris only able to secure sixth.
The McLaren star has pushed his rival hard all throughout the season.
But with Norris' form tailing off in recent weeks, it's Verstappen who is now basking in the glory of his latest success.
Lando Norris has admitted it 'hurts' having to congratulate Max Verstappen after the Red Bull driver won the F1 Drivers' Championship for the fourth year in a row
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Speaking after the race, Norris paid tribute to Verstappen.
Yet the Briton conceded he also felt disappointed, having come on leaps and bounds since the start of the campaign.
"Congrats to Max, as much as it hurts a little bit, saying congrats doesn't hurt, but knowing the championship is 100 per cent over you always have a little hope inside," he said.
"He drove an incredible season and when you have the quickest car he dominated and when he didn't he was still there and always on my heels.
"He made my life tough, we made his tough at times I'm sure but he drove a better season.
"The race was pretty pants, bad pace, grip, tyre management, just a poor weekend from us."
Norris also admitted that, at the start of the season, he never imagined battling it out with Verstappen for glory.
But he's extremely proud of how he's performed this season and has 'no regrets' despite missing out on the prize.
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"I didn't even expect to be in the title fight," he added.
"I was happy with how calm I was and how focused I was, there's definitely more pressure and more eyes, nerves and demands on me making sure I go out and don't mess qualifying up or make a mistake in the race, stay in the race, don't get taken out.
"You have to drive better when you get to that point and I feel like I have, I feel like since Zandvoort I've done close to a perfect job.
"There are things I need to improve on as always, but I feel like I've done a good job, especially the second half of the season.
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Lando Norris could only finish sixth at the Las Vegas Grand Prix
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"The first half we were suddenly like 'oh we are fighting them [Red Bull]'. I don't think I or us as a team were mentally ready for fighting against the big boys and execute perfectly.
"As much as we would like to believe we were ready, we weren't and we paid the price a little bit.
"It was also us there fighting Max and no one else. We started off the season off worst of the top four teams and we ended up being the most consistent and probably the best team.
"I'm more proud than anything else and I don't regret anything. Even if it was a perfect year on my behalf we couldn't have won the championship this year, I think Max drove too well.
Lando Norris has missed out on F1 title glory with Max Verstappen basking in the celebrations at the Las Vegas Grand Prix
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"Red Bull and the team did too good of a job for us and it was just lost in the first six races, the points gap is what it is now but already after six races.
"I'm still happy it was us and we put up a good fight. I look forward to next year being there at the beginning."
