Lando Norris laughs off Mexico boos after taking championship lead from Piastri

Oct 27, 2025 - 06:22

Lando Norris won the Mexico City GP to take the lead in the standings Credit: Getty Images/Hector Vivas

Lando Norris laughed off the boos of the Mexico City crowds as he stormed back into the lead of the drivers’ championship for the first time since April with a dominant victory.

Norris, who had not won a race since Hungary, just before the summer break, converted his pole position with a minimum of fuss, winning by over 30 seconds from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and capping what the Briton described as the “probably strongest weekend of his career overall”.

Bizarrely, Norris found himself booed afterwards by sections of the crowd at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, just as he was after taking pole on Saturday. He said he had no idea why that might be. As far as anyone is aware, he has never slighted Sergio Pérez or declared a strong dislike for enchiladas.

One Mexican journalist in the press conference afterwards suggested it was because they were upset about McLaren’s decision to switch their drivers in Monza after botching Norris’s pitstop, and felt the Briton was being given the title by McLaren and should “give those three points back”.

“If they want to think that they can,” Norris replied, looking a bit bemused. “For us as a team we tried to do things fairly. Same with last year in Budapest – I let Oscar [Piastri] win that race.

“If they want to have the three points, they can. But Oscar deserved the win in Budapest, I deserved the win in Monza.”

Norris should pay it no heed. Nor does he sound as though he is going to. Asked by Telegraph Sport whether it had soured his victory in any way, he just smiled, and replied: “I like sour sweets.”

Time will tell whether he can stay so relaxed as the pressure ramps up.

With four races remaining, Norris now leads the title race by a point from Piastri, his McLaren team-mate who was only able to finish fifth here. Max Verstappen, meanwhile, closed to within 36 points of the championship lead, albeit he dropped 10 points to Norris.

It is absolutely fascinatingly poised. But crucially, it is Norris now who has the lead and all the momentum.

Now we find out what the Briton is made of. Norris has been accused of all sorts over the past 12 months; lacking in mental strength, being too error-prone, being too soft. No one could accuse him of that after this Speedy Gonzales performance.

What a race this was. And what a controversial finish. A late virtual safety car (VSC), with two laps remaining, almost certainly prevented Verstappen from passing Leclerc’s Ferrari for second place, and in all probability prevented Piastri from passing Haas’s Ollie Bearman for fourth place, too.

The 20-year-old Briton deserved his best-ever grand prix result for a performance of wonderful maturity. But that VSC – brought out on lap 70 of 71 after Williams’ Carlos Sainz spun and stopped in the run-off area on the outside of turn 14 – could yet have a big part to play in this championship.

It was one of a number of odd calls from the race director and stewards on the day.

The opening laps were absolute bedlam. Lewis Hamilton, chasing his first grand prix win as a Ferrari driver, had promised to be “racy” at the start from third. “I don’t have anything to lose, but he does,” the seven-time world champion had noted, looking over at Norris in the press conference on Saturday night. Others had the same idea.

Norris got away well but behind him it was all kicking off. Hamilton, Leclerc and Verstappen ended up going three abreast into turn one, with both Leclerc and Verstappen leaving the track as a result.

Leclerc briefly took the lead of the race after cutting a corner, which he gave back. Verstappen, who missed three corners, also had to give places back, slotting back in in fourth, which annoyed George Russell, who described it as “ridiculous” that Verstappen had not been punished further.

Stewards took no further action. But they did give one to Hamilton after a lap-six skirmish with Verstappen. The Dutchman had made a big lunge up the inside of Hamilton at turn one, trying to take third place. Hamilton seemed surprised, turning into the Red Bull and touching wheels. The Ferrari driver then tried to take the place back into turn four, only to lock up and go straight on. Hamilton ended up getting a 10-second penalty for gaining an unfair advantage. “That’s such bull---- man,” he complained to his engineer when he was told.

A fascinating race eventually unwound itself with Norris, Leclerc and Verstappen occupying the podium spots after one-stoppers, and everyone behind them on two-stoppers.

Verstappen, in particular, could consider himself unfortunate after the late VSC. He drove an “insane” race, in the words of Gianpiero Lambiase, his race engineer. As for Piastri, he fought back from a difficult start to pass both Mercedes cars and will be annoyed not to have had a crack at Bearman late on.

But it was Norris who was left smiling the broadest. In Baku back in September he was accused of missing out on a golden opportunity to cash in after Piastri crashed out and he was only able to finish seventh. Here he took full advantage. Now he goes from hunter to hunted.