Mexico City, Oct 27 (AP) Lando Norris surged back to the forefront of the Formula 1 championship battle with a commanding victory in Mexico City. This win ended a five-race dry spell and put Norris in a prime position as the season heads into its final stretch.
Reflecting on his performance, Norris remarked, “I think it is just my best performance through a whole weekend.” Starting from pole position, the McLaren driver was virtually untouchable, extending his lead to an impressive 30 seconds by the race's conclusion.
This triumph marks Norris' sixth win of the season and his first since the Hungarian Grand Prix in early August. More significantly, it capitalizes on his teammate Oscar Piastri's current downturn, positioning Norris narrowly ahead in their joint quest to unseat Max Verstappen from his reign as world champion.
With only four races left, Norris clings to a slender one-point lead over Piastri. Going into the race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Norris was trailing Piastri by 14 points in the drivers’ standings. McLaren has already celebrated their second consecutive constructors’ championship, but the team remains fiercely determined to disrupt Verstappen’s four-year dominance in the F1 world championship.
Norris now finds himself leading the standings again for the first time since April following the fifth race of the season. “It's one weekend at a time," Norris stated, attempting to rise above the resounding boos from the culturally vibrant sell-out crowd of 150,000. He momentarily halted during a trackside interview due to the noise, taking the moment in stride with a nervous laugh before proceeding.
He added, “I'm happy, I am focused on myself, I keep my head down, I ignore all of it. I keep to myself and it's working.” While Norris admitted the booing doesn’t bother him, he’s baffled by the fact he laughs in response. “People can do what they want, I think that's sport,” Norris commented. “They can keep doing it if they want, of course you don't want it. I'd prefer to have people cheer for me.”
Meanwhile, Piastri salvaged a fifth-place finish, advancing from seventh by overtaking George Russell late in the race. This critical maneuver allowed Norris to edge ahead by just one point in their riveting championship duel.
Max Verstappen, on the other hand, entered Mexico City with a chance to rekindle his championship aspirations following three wins in his last four outings. A third-place finish, constrained by a late virtual safety car which hampered his attempt to surpass Charles Leclerc for second, has positioned Verstappen just 36 points from the lead, a considerable improvement from his 104-point deficit six races prior.
Assessing the event's closure, Verstappen noted, “I mean, you win some, you lose some, right? Sometimes the safety car works for you and sometimes it works against you.”
Another notable performance came from Oliver Bearman, who achieved a career-best fourth place, bolstering Haas with their second top-four finish in team history.
Norris’ inaugural victory in Mexico City appeared “like an easy Sunday drive,” as he described it, finishing comfortably ahead of Leclerc. “I could just keep my eyes focused, and just keep eyes forward and focus on what I was doing,” Norris explained. “A pretty straightforward race for me, which is just what I was after.”
Amidst the action, Lewis Hamilton saw his chances of securing a podium for Ferrari slip away due to a penalty. In an early tussle for third with Verstappen and Russell on lap six, Hamilton veered off the course, utilized an escape route, and rejoined in third. However, he was slapped with a 10-second penalty for gaining an advantage. Hamilton’s frustration was palpable, evidenced by his choice to express his displeasure with an expletive.
Despite Ferrari’s ongoing struggle for victories, as it has been a year since Carlos Sainz Jr. triumphed in Mexico City, the team managed to climb to second in the constructor championship standings, while Leclerc celebrated his second consecutive podium, finishing one place higher than his third-place finish last weekend at the United States Grand Prix.
Leclerc expressed surprise at the consistency, stating, “I think we did not expect to be replicating what we've done in Austin. We knew that Austin we had done the perfect execution, but we also knew that on paper we maybe didn't have the pace that McLaren or Red Bull had. To be on the podium at that race was a surprise, but we managed to do that again and one step higher on the podium here.”
The championship contention rolls on to the Brazilian Grand Prix on Nov. 9. Verstappen aims to defend his title, having dominated the last two races at Interlagos.
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