If Oscar Piastri is to win this year’s Formula One world championship, he now knows he’ll have to earn it.

The standings lead that Piastri has held for the past six months has now been wiped away after his McLaren team mate Lando Norris drove a brilliant race from pole position to easily win Monday morning’s Mexican Grand Prix while the Australian could only manage fifth.

Norris now leads the championship with 357 points, one more than Piastri (356). Max Verstappen (321) remains in third place, 36 behind Norris.

There are still 116 points available from the final four grands prix, which include two sprints.

The momentum is now with Norris but Piastri still has a great chance of joining Jack Brabham and Alan Jones as the only Australians to win the world drivers’ title.

Nothing has gone Piastri’s way over the past four races but he showed plenty of fight and race craft to salvage fifth place after being squeezed at the first corner and dropping back to ninth.

Charles Leclerc finished second for Ferrari but is no longer in contention for the title while Oliver Bearman surprised everyone when he finished fourth for Haas, holding off Piastri on the closing lap after a virtual safety car was deployed.

The next race is in Brazil in two weeks’ time before the season ends with a triple header in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

“I love it. What a race. I could just keep my eyes focused and forward and focus on what I was doing,” Norris said.

“A pretty straightforward race for me which is just what I was after. A good start, a good launch, a good first lap and I could go from there.

“I got a much better launch than the guys around. It’s my first win in Mexico and a beautiful one to get.”

Runner-up Charles Leclerc said: “Very happy with this weekend. Austin was very positive but to end up on the podium again is a great surprise. Very happy to be on this amazing podium again.

“I was quite happy about the VSC at the end! My tyres were completely gone. I could see Max was coming back on the softs.

“It was tough, but the VSC saved me at the end.”