Lando Norris has taken control of the Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship after a commanding victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix saw him leapfrog teammate Oscar Piastri by a single point.
The McLaren driver led from pole position to chequered flag, crossing the line more than 30 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to claim his 10th career win. Max Verstappen finished third after a late charge on Leclerc fell just short.
The result marks a reversal of fortune for the McLaren teammates, with Piastri’s fifth-place finish costing him the championship lead he had held coming into the race. The Australian now trails by one point in what is shaping up to be a season-long battle between the papaya cars.
Norris seizes championship lead with dominant Mexico victory
The title fight has taken on a new dimension with both McLaren drivers now separated by the smallest of margins. Norris had started the weekend knowing he needed to outscore both Piastri and Verstappen to take the lead, with his main rivals lining up fifth and seventh respectively.
The Briton delivered exactly what was required, controlling the race from the front while Piastri struggled to make progress through the field after dropping to ninth on the opening lap.
“What a race,” Norris said in a statement after the victory. “I could just keep my eyes focused, I could just keep eyes forward and just focus on what I was doing. A pretty straightforward race for me which is just what I was after. Good start, good launch, good first lap and I could go from there.”
The race began with a chaotic first corner that saw four cars battle for the lead. Verstappen was forced onto the grass after running alongside the two Ferraris, while Leclerc briefly led before having to hand the position back to Norris after cutting the corner.
The incident would prove crucial for Piastri’s championship hopes. While Norris escaped the melee unscathed, the Australian dropped back to ninth and spent much of the race fighting through traffic.
Hamilton’s involvement in the opening lap chaos proved costly for the seven-time champion. The Ferrari driver received a 10-second time penalty after an investigation found he had left the track and gained an advantage during a battle with Verstappen at Turn 4. The penalty dropped Hamilton to 14th after his pit stop, and he could only recover to eighth by the flag.
One of the standout performances came from Haas’s Ollie Bearman, who capitalised on the first-lap incidents to run as high as fourth and defended the position to the finish despite late pressure from Piastri.
The result marks the best finish of Bearman’s Formula 1 career to date and provided a boost to Haas’s points tally, with teammate Esteban Ocon also scoring in ninth.
Bearman had benefited from a moment for Verstappen early in the race that allowed the Haas driver to overtake the Red Bull and hold the position through his pit stop strategy.
While Norris’s victory was never in doubt once he had built a lead in the opening laps, the battle for second provided late drama. Verstappen closed to within 2.5 seconds of Leclerc in the final laps, setting up a potential last-lap showdown.
However, a Virtual Safety Car period triggered by Carlos Sainz’s stoppage on lap 70 interrupted the battle. When racing resumed with half a lap remaining, Verstappen had one final chance but Leclerc held on by 0.725 seconds.
The result continues Verstappen’s struggle to match the pace of the McLarens and Ferraris in recent races, with the Red Bull driver unable to challenge for victory despite starting fifth.
Mercedes endured a frustrating afternoon despite having both cars finish in the points. The team made multiple strategy calls regarding the running order of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, first swapping the positions to allow Russell to chase Bearman, then reversing the order again after Russell failed to make progress.
Russell eventually finished seventh, one place behind Antonelli in sixth. The British driver had voiced his concerns during the race that both Mercedes cars were compromising each other’s races.
Four drivers failed to finish the 71-lap race. Liam Lawson was the first retirement after sustaining damage on the opening lap, while Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso both retired with mechanical issues โ a power unit problem for the Kick Sauber and a suspected brake issue for the Aston Martin.
Sainz’s race ended in the stadium section with just a lap remaining after the Williams driver had already been handed two penalties for pit lane speeding, the second a drive-through penalty that suggested an issue with his pit lane speed limiter.
The championship battle now moves to Interlagos for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on November 7-9, with Norris holding a one-point advantage over Piastri. Verstappen sits third in the standings, with Leclerc’s second-place finish also keeping the Ferrari driver in contention.
The narrow margin between the top two means every point will be critical in the remaining races, with the McLaren team facing the challenge of managing two drivers separated by the smallest of gaps in the championship fight.
