Lando Norris started the recently concluded Mexico City GP in P17, ten places behind his teammate Oscar Piastri. Despite this, the British driver finished three places ahead of Piastri, in which the Australian played a perfect team game as, according to him, fighting with Norris “didn’t make sense.”
Even though Piastri started way ahead of his teammate and had the same pace in his MCL60 initially, he gave up fighting due to bodywork damage he received while battling Yuki Tsunoda. He tangled with the AlphaTauri driver that sent the latter off and endured damage in his car.
Therefore, battling with Norris to keep him at bay didn’t make sense for the young Australian. Talking about this, he said as per MotorsportWeek, “I had some damage at that point. Lando was very quick at that point compared to everyone so it didn’t make sense to try and battle each other.”
Following this, he further added, “In the end, it meant Lando got another two spots so it worked out well for the team.”
In the end, Norris finished the race in P5, whereas Piastri crossed the line in P8. With Aston Martin chase complete now, the Woking-based team are most likely to be in the hunt for Ferrari in P3.
How is Piastri faring in McLaren as compared to Lando Norris?
McLaren is easily one of the teams that has two drivers gunning for glory together. Therefore, there are often situations when Lando Norris tries to get the better of Oscar Piastri and vice versa.
Admittedly, Norris is the de facto number one in the team due to his long presence in the team, and Piastri does not see an issue with this. However, with his recent spree of fascinating performances, there are sparks of the Australian removing his teammate from being the priority number one in the team.
The British driver, however, with his Mexico City GP performance where he overtook 12 cars, would like to differ. It was a day of redemption for the 23-year-old in this regard.
Nevertheless, McLaren’s priority remains to be as close to Red Bull next year. Therefore, sorting out who the number one driver in the team does not matter for Zak Brown at the moment.
