Lando Norris said he welcomes title rival Max Verstappen talking “nonsense” about this year’s title fight, but insists he will remain fully focused on winning this year’s world championship.

In an interview ahead of this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, Verstappen said he would have “easily” won this year’s title by now if his car had been as competitive as Norris’ McLaren.

Verstappen title chances hang by a thread after he dropped to 25 points behind Norris following a fourth-place finish in Saturday’s sprint race in Qatar.

If Norris beats Verstappen in Sunday’s grand prix — the penultimate race of the season — Verstappen will be mathematically ruled out of contention.

Asked about Verstappen’s comments, Norris, who finished third in Saturday’s sprint race, brushed off the jibe.

“Max is very welcome to say everything he wants, to be honest,” Norris said. “He kind of earned the right.

“He’s won four world championships. I have a lot of respect, and I think that gives anyone a lot of credit in general.

“He’s achieved an incredible amount, more than anyone generally dreams of achieving.

“Max generally has a good clue about a lot of things, but there’s also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about. It’s also Red Bull’s way of going about things. It’s this kind of aggressive nature and just talking nonsense a lot of the time.

“It depends if you want to listen to it and talk about it like you [the media] love to, or you do what we do as a team, which is just kind of keep our heads down, keep focused.

“Maybe he would have done [won the title in a McLaren], but he hasn’t so far.”

Although Verstappen finished one place behind Norris in the sprint, the McLaren driver said he barely noticed the Red Bull and was only focused on the cars in front.

“I never saw him, actually,” Norris said of Verstappen. “I just saw what was ahead, I tried to go forwards.

“We got pretty close at the start, but it was good. No, I didn’t see what happened behind, it was a long stint with a lot of pushing.

“It’s going to be a tough race tomorrow, it’s just not easy to pass around here. Too difficult, so it’s all about qualifying.”