Lando Norris turned the three-way championship battle in Formula 1 on its head with a world championship-winning drive and is suddenly the top favorite to win the title.
The Englishman won the hectic Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday with a concentrated and dominant performance and took the lead in the drivers’ championship for the first time since April. The lead is extremely small, but the trend clearly speaks in favor of the 25-year-old.
“What a race,” said Norris, who received an unexpectedly negative reception from fans in the Foro Sol stadium during his victory speech, about his race: “I stayed focused. I got off well at the start and then controlled the race.”
Norris relegated Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari and Verstappen to their places. The Red Bull star limited the damage thanks to clever tactics and good tire management and is still fully in the fight to defend his title. “I’m very satisfied with how the weekend went,” said Verstappen.
Bitter from Verstappen’s point of view: The reigning world champion had a good chance of displacing Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc from second place in the final laps of the race. However, he had to stop his attack due to the virtual safety car being called out on the penultimate lap due to the failure of Williams driver Carlos Sainz. “I was pretty happy then, I noticed how my tires were deteriorating. The safety car probably saved me,” said Leclerc after the race.
Piastri one of the losers of the race
Oscar Piastri was one of the losers in Mexico. The Australian McLaren driver, who had been weak for weeks, couldn’t get past fifth place and lost the championship lead to his teammate Norris. But only one point separates the two McLaren stars. Verstappen follows with a gap of 36 points.
The change at the top also came about because Oliver Bearman surprised by finishing fourth in the Haas. Record world champion Lewis Hamilton, who started from third place, had to be content with eighth place in the Ferrari. After a weak start, Nico Hülkenberg had a bad day and retired early after a technical defect.
Verstappen with a lightning start and braking
The advantage after clear qualifying clearly rested with pole-setter Lando Norris. The Brit presented himself in a league of his own in the time hunt on Saturday, while Verstappen in fifth place and Piastri in seventh place searched in vain for the right set-up. “I have little hope for the race,” Verstappen said.
The first stress test awaited Norris when the traffic lights went out. The start and finish straight in the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez is extremely long and offers advantages for cars in the slipstream. Norris promptly had to fend off the first attacks, but parried them brilliantly and successfully defended his position. Behind it it became chaotic: Verstappen also got away well, but at the level of the first corner the world champion ran out of track in the crowd on the outside lane – Verstappen braked, shot over the grass and initially fell back into fourth place.
Verstappen is trying to catch up
The race remained competitive and Verstappen was once again at the center of the action. During an overtaking maneuver there was contact with Hamilton, and the Dutchman fell back to fifth place as a result. Hamilton braked in the following corner, but did not use the emergency exit provided when returning to the track – the Brit received a ten-second penalty and missed the chance of the first podium with the Scuderia. At the front, Norris dictated what happened.
Verstappen looked for the pace on degrading tires and fell back to eighth place after the first pit stops, but had an advantage on a new set of soft compounds and began his race to catch up. Further stops by his rivals pushed the Dutchman into third place – not enough for Verstappen. He constantly reduced the gap to Leclerc, but couldn’t get past because the virtual safety car was in his way shortly before the end.