Lando Norris, a McLaren driver, fought back from early mayhem to clinch the Mexico City Grand Prix title on Sunday, beating teammate Oscar Piastri by one point.
After a thrilling chase, Australia’s Piastri, who finished seventh and 14 points clear of the Briton, was denied a chance to finish fourth.
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Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished second, just 0.33 seconds behind Norris, while Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen came in third, just 0.07 behind the Monegasque driver.
With only three rounds left, Verstappen leads with 321 and Norris, who started from pole position and led every lap. He now leads Piastri with 357 points, compared to 356 for the season.
What a race, ya know. Norris, who was booed by the home crowd for reasons that were unknown, simply kept his eyes on the task at hand.
“A fairly straightforward race for me, which is what I was looking for. I could move forward with a strong first lap, a strong launch, and a good start.
Norris becomes the frontrunner for the championship.
Norris last won the drivers’ standings in April, ending a 189-day losing streak. He had not won a race since Hungary’s early August debut. His tenth career victory came on Sunday, one shy of Piastri’s sixth.
“It seemed to me like I was struggling with the dirty air the entire race. Piastri said, “That was a little challenging.
“Today was about trying to limit the damage while also trying to learn some things about that,” he said. I’ll be happy if I’ve made some progress in that regard.
At a chequered flag waved by former heavyweight champion boxing champion Evander Holyfield, Oliver Bearman placed fourth for Haas, which was the best result for both the British and US-owned team.
The rookie remarked, “I held off Max in the first stint, I held off the Mercs in the second, and I held off the McLaren in the third one.”
“I looked in my rearview mirrors more often than I did the front.” But that’s occasionally the way it should be.
After being dropped from third place in a 10-second penalty and denying his hopes of a first podium for the team he joined in January, Kimi Antonelli finished sixth for Mercedes, teammate George Russell placed seventh, and Lewis Hamilton placed eighth for Ferrari.
Gabriel Bortoleto of Sauber won the final spot while Esteban Ocon of Haas finished with two points.
Ferrari regains second place.
The top three drivers pitted twice, followed by Bearman, Piastri, and the Mercedes-Benz drivers, who all had one-stop racing.
In a constructors’ championship that McLaren had already won but in a close race for the runner-up spot, Ferrari reclaimed second place, one point ahead of Mercedes.
Verstappen cut the corner and bumped over the grass, but Norris made a straight start from pole when the lights went out.
Verstappen moved up to fourth place due to Russell’s intense annoyance, while Leclerc then cut turn two, reclaiming Norris, who had emerged from the chaos ahead.
Verstappen remarked on the team radio that Russell, who had started fourth, had sworn in vain to give the spot back, saying, “I got squeezed like crazy.”
In a frightful incident, Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, who had a new front wing installed on lap three, accelerated as two marshals raced across the track in front of him.
Verstappen and Hamilton, who was third overall, made contact on lap six as they crossed the turn one corner while Hamilton was trying to pass him.
Hamilton was penalized for leaving the track and taking an advantage after cutting back across the grass at turn four.
Bearman, on the other hand, rose to fourth place from ninth place at the start and appeared to be on the podium after Hamilton’s penalty on lap 24 was taken, but Verstappen did it.
After making his first stop, Piastri had to fight back from a low of 11th, passing Antonelli in the pits and Russell on the track.
After Carlos Sainz, Williams’s winner for Ferrari last year, spun and stopped on track on the final lap, causing smoke to come out of it, the virtual safety car was deployed.
Source: Aljazeera
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