Norris Sends a Strong Message with a Powerful Win After Tough Times

Lando Norris said his dominant victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix has given him the confidence to fight for his first world title this year.

The British driver’s lights-to-flag win put him back at the top of the championship standings, a position he had lost to his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri when the Australian driver won the season’s fifth race, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, in April.

More importantly, this victory was proof of Norris’s consistent form. Since retiring from the Dutch Grand Prix in late August due to a fuel-line failure, he has recovered 35 points from Piastri over five races.

Norris said, “It gives me confidence. Performing well in a single race doesn’t mean much, but two, three, or four good results in a row — that’s what really matters. I’ve been performing well over the past few months.”

With four races remaining in the season, this win demonstrated that McLaren — not Red Bull — has been the most consistent team this year.

At the start of the weekend, discussions centered around Max Verstappen’s threat, as the Dutchman had won three of the previous four races and finished second in one, reducing his gap to Piastri to 64 points.

Many believed that if Verstappen could maintain his momentum, a fifth consecutive world title was possible. But after a few weak races, Norris delivered a powerful statement for himself and McLaren.

The 25-year-old was in control from the second practice session onward. He gave up his car in the first session to Mexican IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward as part of the team’s mandatory rookie program.

He then secured pole position with one of the best laps of the season. On the long run down to Turn 1, he avoided the slipstream chaos behind and stayed ahead of the pack.

He only briefly lost the lead when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc cut Turn 3 during a battle with Lewis Hamilton. Leclerc later let Norris retake the lead after being deemed to have overtaken illegally, and from there, Norris never looked back.

Norris said, “In a way, this was my best performance of the whole weekend — practice, qualifying, and race — I’m happy with all of it.”

This season, Norris has overcome many challenges. He began with a win in Australia, but Piastri dominated afterward with four victories before Norris earned his second.

Initially, Norris struggled with the car’s performance. But after a small front suspension adjustment at the Canadian Grand Prix in June, he gradually regained his form.

Since then, he has claimed four wins, while Piastri has managed only two — the last one coming in Zandvoort, where Norris retired. At that point, his title hopes seemed over.

Norris said, “You have to forget those things. Every race is a new opportunity, a new beginning. I just tried to do better than before, and this weekend, I managed to do that.”

While Norris’s form has improved, Piastri’s performance has dipped since Zandvoort. Norris was faster in Italy, and Piastri endured a disastrous weekend in Baku — three crashes and a false start.

In Singapore, Norris stirred some controversy with his aggressive charge to third, but in the last two races — in the U.S. and Mexico — Piastri has been off the pace.

Norris said, “The last few races have been good, but there’s still a long way to go. I need to stay consistent because there are very fast drivers around me.”

He added, “Whether I’m ahead or behind won’t change the way I drive.”

After the race in Mexico, Norris admitted that earlier in the season, he had doubts about himself.

“When the car was winning and Oscar was winning, I couldn’t say the car wasn’t good,” he said. “I just wasn’t able to make the most of it. Now I’m slowly understanding it, and that’s the difference.”

Now, it’s Piastri facing the challenge. He has lost pace over the last two races.

Piastri said, “In the last few weekends, the way the car drives has completely changed. What used to work isn’t working anymore, so it’s been hard to figure out why.”

In qualifying at Mexico, Piastri was 0.588 seconds and seven positions behind Norris. He spent the entire night analyzing data with his engineers.

During the race, he tried out a few experimental changes, but being stuck in traffic made it hard to evaluate their impact. He eventually recovered to finish fifth.

Piastri said, “Today’s race was mainly about testing some changes because lately, the car hasn’t felt very natural to drive.”

Team principal Andrea Stella said Norris excels in low-grip conditions, while Piastri’s driving style suits high-grip tracks better. He added that as Piastri is only in his third season, he still has a lot to learn in adapting to different situations.

Stella said, “There’s no reason why any of the last four tracks should favor one driver over the other. We just need to make sure we extract maximum performance from the car, as we did in Mexico.”

He added, “Our confidence in the championship has grown because we’ve proven that our car can win races and even dominate under certain conditions. That’s the biggest motivation for both Lando and Oscar to keep fighting for the title.”

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen, confident after his win in Austin, finished third in Mexico but appeared frustrated by Norris’s pace.

His points gap has now been cut from 40 to 36. Verstappen said, “I lost 10 points to Lando. As I said before, everything has to be perfect to win. It wasn’t this weekend — that’s the answer.”

He added, “The season isn’t over yet. Hopefully, we won’t have another race like this, but it shows we’re not quick in every condition, and that’s something we need to understand.”

Norris said, “Over the last six or seven weeks, Max has closed the gap to me. I’m just staying focused and doing my job. Every weekend is a new opportunity, and there’s still a long way to go.”

Khaborwala/TSN