Calm Lando Norris plans to stay relaxed after taking F1 title-race lead

MEXICO CITY – Lando Norris plans to continue his policy of being relaxed and focused on just himself, after taking a one-point lead in the Formula One drivers’ world championship by winning the Mexico City Grand Prix on Oct 26.

As McLaren teammate and chief title rival Oscar Piastri fought to finish fifth, Norris cruised to a commanding 30-second triumph ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc resisted a late charge by Red Bull’s four-time champion Max Verstappen with the aid of a late virtual safety car intervention.

It was Briton Norris’ first win in Mexico and the 10th of his career, lifting him to 357 points in the title race, ahead of Piastri on 356 and on top for the first time in six months since losing the lead to Piastri at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in April.

With four events remaining, Norris, 25, has seized the momentum and is also 36 points ahead of the in-form Verstappen, who has reeled off six consecutive podium finishes to reduce Piastri’s 104-point lead over him at the end of August.

“It’s one weekend at a time for me,” said Norris, whose competitive mentality and composure have been questioned this season.

“I’m happy and I’m focused on myself. I’m just keeping my head down and I keep to myself. It’s working for me at the minute, so I’m happy... but what a race.”

Staying calm amid a carnival atmosphere at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, he added: “It was pretty straightforward, which is just what I wanted. A good start, a good launch and a good first lap... And then, I could go from there.

“I just stay relaxed and it helps. It helped me get a good start and it’s the best thing. For me, this is awesome and I love it. My first win in Mexico and what a beautiful one to win here in this stadium.”

Piastri, 24, has surrendered the championship lead, but the Australian sounded upbeat about his progress and said he had taken steps to unlock his car’s pace.

“It wasn’t so much the pace of the car because the car was pretty quick this weekend,” said the driver, who started from seventh place on the grid. “It was more just trying to unlock it and I felt like I’ve potentially made some steps in doing that today.

“Yesterday, it became obvious after the (qualifying) session that there were a few things I needed to change pretty majorly in how I was driving.”

Verstappen, meanwhile, did not expect to finish on the podium after his struggles in qualifying. The Dutchman was not overly disappointed that a late virtual safety car denied him the chance to turn his third place into second.

The world champion started fifth on the grid after complaining of a lack of grip in Oct 25’s qualifying. But he finished less than a second behind Leclerc, who was struggling with his tyres at the end.

A virtual safety car on the penultimate lap, deployed when Carlos Sainz spun and stopped with smoke coming from his Williams, came as a godsend for Leclerc.

“Sometimes the safety car works for you and sometimes it works against you,” said Verstappen, 28.

“Would have been fun, I think, to the end. Well, maybe a bit more fun for me than for Charles defending, but it would have been a fun ending for everyone to watch.

“Personally, I didn’t expect to be on the podium.”

Apart from the contenders, Oliver Bearman came agonisingly close to delivering Haas their first Formula One podium after soaking up the pressure to finish fourth.

The 20-year-old Ferrari academy graduate, who joined Haas this season, said the team had opted to defend fourth place rather than risk it all for third.

Further down, Liam Lawson said he narrowly avoided a fatal accident after two marshals ran across the track in front of him.

The New Zealander, who races for Red Bull-owned Racing Bulls, sounded incredulous over the team radio at the incident on the third lap.

“Are you kidding me? Did you just see that?” he asked his race engineer in an exchange with plenty of swearing. “I could have... killed them, mate.

“I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Boxed (pitted), came out on a new set of hards (tyres), and then I got to Turn 1 and there were just two dudes running across the track.

“It was so dangerous. I’ve never experienced that before... It’s pretty unacceptable.” AFP, REUTERS