Lando Norris delivered a masterful drive from pole to flag at the Mexico City Grand Prix, winning emphatically and moving to the top of the drivers’ championship for the first time since April. The McLaren driver held off a spirited challenge from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who finished second, while Max Verstappen salvaged third for Red Bull. Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri managed only fifth, dropping behind the Briton in the standings.
Norris now leads Piastri by a single point, with Verstappen a further 35 points adrift. With four races remaining, the championship is finely poised, and Norris’s momentum could prove decisive. His victory came despite a mechanical failure at the Dutch Grand Prix in August that left him 34 points behind Piastri. Since then, Norris has responded with controlled consistency, while Piastri’s form has dipped, including a false start in Baku and a crash in Singapore.
The race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez saw Norris hold his lead through a breathtaking three-wide drag to turn one, before opening a seven-second gap in clean air. Piastri, starting seventh, endured a poor start, dropping to tenth, but fought back to fifth with a decisive move on George Russell late in the race. Verstappen, on an alternative strategy, might have taken second but for a virtual safety car on the penultimate lap.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has indicated the team will prioritise one driver if needed to secure their first drivers’ title since 2008. With Norris now in the lead, he holds the upper hand internally. “Zandvoort is still clear in my head,” Norris said. “But you focus on every race. This has easily been my best performance, but there’s still a long way to go.”
