Motorsport TechnologyLando Norris’s battling second place at the USGP in Austin marked further progress in his pursuit of a first drivers’ title against McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.
The season had started well for the 2024 runner-up with wins in Australia, Monaco, Austria and Silverstone.
But the greater consistency of teammate Piastri allied to a couple of bad results and DNFs for Norris in Holland and Canada put him into a sticky situation. Over the last three races, however, the tide seems to have turned with Piastri feeling the pressure of the man being hunted.
Norris has finished higher than his teammate in the last four races. The net result? The Englishman has closed the gap to only 14 points with five rounds of the F1 championship remaining.
“It was an interesting race today, and a good battle with Charles [Leclerc]. However, it took a little too long to get by and, as a result, we had to settle for second,” commented Norris on the official McLaren F1 website.
“It was tough, but the strategy was good, and it worked out well in the end. Full focus now switches to Mexico and doing the best job I can there.”
Both McLaren drivers are well trained in the nuances of media questioning and are keeping tight lipped over team orders and driver favouritism as a certain Max Verstappen looms large in their mirrors. The feeling is that they will be allowed to race for the title without the need for team orders. But priority one is keeping the Dutchman behind them.
“I don’t think there’s an overwhelming trend that things are in a bad way,” Piastri is quoted via Andrew Benson on BBC Sport. “It’s just that this weekend has been has been tough. So we’ll try and understand why that was the case. And try and bounce back next week.”
“The pressure has been there the whole year. This weekend, I didn’t really feel like I made any mistakes. It just wasn’t very fast. There’s some weekends where it just doesn’t click for you. And this was one of those. When you feel like you’ve done a reasonable job and just the pace hasn’t been there, I don’t think that’s really what pressure looks like.
“I’ve been in fights that were as close or at this point even closer than what they are now. So I’ve got the evidence for myself that things can still turn out well and I still fully believe that I can win the championship.
“There’s still a long way to go in the championship. Max has obviously chased it down pretty quick, but it’s not exactly a small gap with five rounds to go. Ultimately, if we can find our way again, find our pace, certainly for me find our pace again, then I don’t have any major concerns.”
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Fraser Masefield
