Lando Norris has insisted the dominant win in the Mexico City Grand Prix that has taken him back to the summit of F1’s world championship does not yet carry any wider significance until he follows it up with “two, three or four in a row”.
Oscar Piastri’s unbroken 189-day stay at the top of the Drivers’ Championship was ended by Norris on Sunday as the Briton claimed victory with the largest winning margin of the season while his McLaren team-mate finished fifth.
The result hands Norris a slender one-point championship advantage over Piastri, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen still in the hunt too at 36 points behind, with four race weekends of the season to go.
Sky Sports F1’s Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 world champion, described the Briton’s runaway win as displaying “strength that we normally see in Max”.
Norris admits his form in Mexico made the event “one of my best weekends of the whole season” but, in a year in which he has struggled to consistently extract the best of the team’s MCL39 car, he was not getting carried away by the eye-catching result.
Asked if he had doubted himself earlier in the year, when regular mistakes in his long-time stronghold of qualifying proved particularly costly in his fight against Piastri, Norris replied: “I certainly did [doubt myself], because I never want to blame my car.
“Certainly when the car was winning and Oscar was winning, the last thing I could do is use the excuse that my car is not good enough.
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Highlights of the Mexico City Grand Prix
“I wasn’t getting up to grips and wasn’t finding a way to make it work, and I’m finding a better way to make it work now.
“So it’s as simple as that. Of course, it gives you good confidence.
“One race, really, I don’t care about.”
Four race weekends now remain in this year’s title battle – with the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, which stages the year’s penultimate Sprint, next up on November 9.
“The last few have been decent. This has easily been my best performance,” Norris said.
“But still a long way to go, so I just have to keep doing what I’m doing, keep trying to be consistent against some very quick guys around me. And, yeah, I think that’ll be good. But it doesn’t mean because I’m ahead or behind or whatever that I have to drive or do anything differently. So, just keep doing what I’m doing.”
And he added: “I’m not a believer in momentum in some ways. One great weekend really doesn’t mean anything.
“Two, three or four in a row means something.”
Just how good was Norris’ performance in Mexico?
Sky Sports F1’s Jacques Villeneuve:
“Lando’s on a roll. He should be able to carry this on.
“He did not put one foot wrong all weekend. He showed strength that we normally see in Max.
“We saw it last year at times, it’s just mid-season that was disappointing. He was barely on Piastri’s level.
“Lando drove like a world champion or someone who wants to win a world championship.
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The crowd erupted with boos as Norris spoke about his Mexico City Grand Prix victory
‘It’s not about reinventing myself’ – what now for Piastri after loss of title lead?
While Norris’ form has steadily improved over recent months, Piastri has now gone four races without a podium finish in a sequence of results that has seen his once-comfortable 34-point title lead over Norris completely evaporate.
While the Australian’s race from seventh on Sunday’s grid in Mexico City was always going to be one of damage limitation, Piastri revealed there had actually been a further challenge at play for him across the 71 laps – making changes to his driving style to get the most out of the car.
“For me the biggest thing is trying to learn the things I wanted to learn today,” said Piastri, who finished on driver-of-the-day Oliver Bearman’s tail.
“Yesterday it became obvious after the session that there was a few things I needed to change pretty majorly in how I was driving.
“Today was about trying to limit the damage, but also trying to learn some things about that. If I’ve made some progress with that I’ll be happy.
“Obviously when your team-mate wins the race finishing fifth is nothing that extravagant.
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The championship battle continues to heat up as Norris takes the lead after cruising to a comfortable win in a chaotic Mexico City Grand Prix!
“I’ve just had to drive very differently the last couple of weekends – or I’ve not driven differently when I should have.
“I think that’s been a little bit strange to get my head around because I’ve been driving exactly the same as I have all year.
“It’s just the last couple of weekends the car or the tyres or something required quite a different way of driving. I’ve just not really gone to that.”
Piastri added: “I’ve tried to change it up a bit today and once we analyse if it’s effective or not that will hopefully help see some progress.
“The car’s obviously not changed for a while so it’s nothing to do with the car. Given how the pace has differentiated, clearly Lando has found it easier to dial into that and I haven’t.
“It’s important to remember the other 19 races and the way I’ve been driving has been working pretty well.
“It’s about adding some tools to the toolbox, rather than reinventing myself.”
‘We need to be faster’ – Verstappen and Red Bull’s reality check?
Verstappen also gained two places in the race, having adopted a different tyre strategy to those around him, after his own qualifying struggles to finish on the podium for the sixth race running.
From 104 points back on Piastri at the end of August, the Dutchman has raced back into late contention for a fifth consecutive title, but the scale of Norris’ win on Sunday underlined that McLaren remain formidable.
“It’s fine to think different [on strategy], but the most important thing is we need to be faster,” he said.
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Max Verstappen was left disappointed after his thrilling chase of Charles Leclerc was disrupted by a Virtual Safety Car
“We had some really good races, but even in the races we won if you look at the tyre management then McLaren are still very strong.
“Then in a weekend when they have more pace in general you have no chance.”
Formula 1’s thrilling title race continues in Brazil with a Sprint weekend at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on November 7-9, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
