Lando Norris believes his Mexico City Grand Prix performance was the best he has produced across a race weekend, after dominating from pole position to take the championship lead.
McLaren had not won since Oscar Piastri’s victory at Zandvoort, but Norris delivered an impressive pole lap on Saturday and then led every lap of the race to win by over 30 seconds from Charles Leclerc. While it was the biggest winning margin of his career so far, Norris says he is most proud of how he performed across the entirety of the weekend.
“I think it’s the one where I just performed the best,” Norris said. “I don’t know, dominant or not, but it’s the one where I think I’ve just performed best throughout, from FP2 all the way to the end of the race. In a way, I think it’s just my best performance through a whole weekend – all my laps in qualifying, all my practice, all my race.
“The car is just quick; it has been the whole season, but clearly it’s still difficult to drive at times. I think when you just find that sweet spot, it can be down the road and make your life a bit easier. I don’t know [why]. It’s hard to say what’s better about mine than the others, but I’ve just had a bit more grip, and that’s normally always the easiest answer.”
Norris was 34 points behind Piastri after retiring from second place in Zandvoort after the summer break, but he has outscored his teammate in each of the five races since to take the lead by a solitary point heading into the final four rounds.
“It’s still very clear in my head,” he said. “You put [Zandvoort] behind you. Right? You forget about that as much as you can, and you just focus on every race coming up. You forget about every previous weekend. Of course you try and learn from every situation, but every weekend’s new and you have a fresh start to try new things and try and do better than before. I feel like that’s what I’ve done very well this weekend.
“The last few have been decent. This has easily been my best performance, but still a long way to go, so I just have to keep doing what I’m doing, keep trying to be consistent against some very quick guys around me.
“I think that’ll be good, but it doesn’t mean because I’m ahead or behind or whatever that I have to drive or do anything differently – just keep doing what I’m doing.”
Despite taking the championship lead, Norris also warns that Max Verstappen has outscored both McLaren drivers since the summer break, having closed to within 36 points of the lead with third place in Mexico.
“It’s one weekend at a time. I’m happy,” he said. “I’m focused on myself, I keep my head down, I ignore all of this and I keep to myself, and it’s working at the minute, so I’m happy.
“For the championship, who knows? It’s still pretty tight between us. Max has still caught me over the last what six, seven weekends, so … I’ve been keeping keeping my head down, keeping focused, doing my own thing and that’s all you can do. Every weekend is new, every weekend is different, and it’s a long way to go.”
