Mexico City, Oct 27: Lando Norris reclaimed the championship lead from teammate Oscar Piastri by winning in Mexico City to snap a five-race losing streak and create a tense final push for the Formula 1 title.
“I think it is just my best performance through a whole weekend,” said Norris, who started from the pole, was never challenged and won by 30 seconds.
The sixth victory of the season for Norris was his first time back on top of the podium since winning the Hungarian Grand Prix at the start of August. More important, Norris pounced on the recent slump Piastri has fallen into to tighten the teammates’ bid to dethrone Max Verstappen as world champion.
Norris holds a one-point advantage over Piastri with four races remaining.
Norris opened the race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez trailing Piastri by 14 points in the driver standings. McLaren has already clinched its second consecutive constructors championship and is now seeking to end Verstappen’s four-year reign as F1’s world champion with either of its drivers.
Norris is now back on top of the standings for the first time since the fifth race of the season, in April.
Piastri came from seventh and used a late pass of George Russell to finish fifth – a critical gain as it allowed Norris to take just a one-point lead over Piastri in the championship race.
Verstappen, meanwhile, arrived in Mexico City with three wins in the past four races to put himself back into title contention. He finished third on Sunday with a late virtual safety car preventing the Red Bull driver for passing Charles Leclerc for second.
Verstappen was 104 points behind Piastri six races ago but has put himself in position to challenge for a fifth consecutive title. He’s now 36 points out of the lead.
The gap could have been even tighter had the safety car not limited Verstappen’s chances to pass Leclerc over the final two laps.
Oliver Bearman finished a career-best fourth to give Haas the second top-four finish in team history.
Norris’ first career victory in Mexico City seemed like an easy Sunday drive as he crossed the finish line far ahead of Leclerc.
Hamilton penalty
Lewis Hamilton was in early contention for his first podium since joining Ferrari this year until a penalty ruined his race.
Hamilton, on the sixth lap, went off course in a three-wide race for third position between Verstappen and George Russell. He used an escape route on the course and rejoined the field back in third position, but was handed a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining position on his return.
Hamilton used an expletive to express his displeasure with the penalty.
Ferrari has now gone an entire year without a victory as Carlos Sainz Jr.’s win in Mexico City last October was the last time one of its drivers took the top spot on the podium.
The next F1 race is the Brazilian Grand Prix on Nov. 9. Verstappen has won the last two races at Interlagos. (AP)
