Lando Norris snaps losing streak with victory in Mexico City, takes lead in F1 championship

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Lando Norris reclaimed the championship lead from teammate Oscar Piastri by winning in Mexico City on Sunday to snap a five-race losing streak and create a tense final push for the Formula 1 title.

“I think it is just my best performance through a whole weekend,” said Norris, who started from the pole, was never challenged and won by 30 seconds.

The sixth victory of the season for Norris was his first time back on top of the podium since winning the Hungarian Grand Prix at the start of August. More important, Norris pounced on the recent slump Piastri has fallen into to tighten the teammates' bid to dethrone Max Verstappen as world champion.

Norris holds a one-point advantage over Piastri with four races remaining.

Norris opened the race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez trailing Piastri by 14 points in the driver standings. McLaren has already clinched its second consecutive constructors championship and is now seeking to end Verstappen's four-year reign as F1's world champion with either of its drivers.

Norris is now back on top of the standings for the first time since the fifth race of the season, in April.

“It's one weekend at a time,” Norris said over a booming chorus of boos from the sold-out crowd of 150,000 spectators. The booing caused Norris to pause his trackside interview and he laughed nervously before continuing.

“I'm happy, I am focused on myself, I keep my head down, I ignore all of it. I keep to myself and it is working.”

He said after he doesn't mind the booing and also doesn't know why he laughs when it is directed at him.

“People can do what they want, I think that's sport,” Norris said. “They can keep doing it if they want, of course you don't want it. I'd prefer to have people cheer for me.”

Piastri came from seventh and used a late pass of George Russell to finish fifth — a critical gain as it allowed Norris to take just a one-point lead over Piastri in the championship race.

Verstappen, meanwhile, arrived in Mexico City with three wins in the past four races to put himself back into title contention. He finished third on Sunday with a late virtual safety car preventing the Red Bull driver for passing Charles Leclerc for second.

Verstappen was 104 points behind Piastri six races ago but has put himself in position to challenge for a fifth consecutive title. He's now 36 points out of the lead.

The gap could have been even tighter had the safety car not limited Verstappen's chances to pass Leclerc over the final two laps.

“I mean, you win some, you lose some, right?” Verstappen said. “Sometimes the safety car works for you and sometimes it works against you.”

Oliver Bearman finished a career-best fourth to give Haas the second top-four finish in team history.

Norris' first career victory in Mexico City seemed like an easy Sunday drive as he crossed the finish line far ahead of Leclerc.

“I could just keep my eyes focused, and just keep eyes forward and focus on what I was doing,” Norris said. “A pretty straightforward race for me, which is just what I was after.”

Lewis Hamilton was in early contention for his first podium since joining Ferrari this year until a penalty ruined his race.

Hamilton, on the sixth lap, went off course in a three-wide race for third position between Verstappen and George Russell. He used an escape route on the course and rejoined the field back in third position, but was handed a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining position on his return.

Hamilton used an expletive to express his displeasure with the penalty.

Ferrari has now gone an entire year without a victory as Carlos Sainz Jr.'s win in Mexico City last October was the last time one of its drivers took the top spot on the podium.

Even so, Ferrari moved into second in the constructor championship and Leclerc grabbed his second consecutive podium. He was third last weekend at the United States Grand Prix and said he was surprised to back that showing up in Mexico City.

“I think we did not expect to be replicating what we’ve done in in Austin," Leclerc said. “We knew that Austin we had done the perfect execution, but we also knew that on paper we maybe didn’t have the pace that McLaren or Red Bull had. To be on the podium at that race was a surprise, but we managed to do that again and one step higher on the podium here.”

The next F1 race is the Brazilian Grand Prix on Nov. 9. Verstappen has won the last two races at Interlagos.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing