{"id":236102,"date":"2025-10-23T22:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T22:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236102\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T22:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T22:38:09","slug":"oscar-piastri-admits-max-verstappens-re-emergence-in-f1-title-race-is-bit-of-a-surprise-formula-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236102\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri admits Max Verstappen\u2019s re-emergence in F1 title race is \u2018bit of a surprise\u2019 | Formula One"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Piastri has admitted that the late charge into a tense, three-way Formula One title fight by the defending champion, Max Verstappen<\/a>, has taken him by surprise, a position echoed by the Dutchman.<\/p>\n

The Australian also confirmed that he and his McLaren<\/a> teammate, Lando Norris, go into this weekend\u2019s Mexican Grand Prix with a \u201cclean slate\u201d, free to race one another as the pair battle with Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Norris trails Piastri by just 14 points with five meetings remaining but Verstappen, who was 104 points off after the Dutch Grand Prix in August, has won three of the last four races and is now only 40 points off the lead. After his comprehensive victory at the last round in Austin<\/a>, Verstappen acknowledged that he was well and truly back in the contest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Piastri, who has not finished in front of Verstappen for the past four rounds and managed no higher than third in that run, said the Dutchman\u2019s resurgence had not been expected. \u201cThe run of form that he has had since Monza has been a bit of a surprise. There were flashes of that performance early in the season but also pretty big dips,\u201d Piastri said. \u201cHe has come to the fight quicker than I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Piastri insisted he remained confident despite the world champion\u2019s run of form. \u201cThe gap has shrunk a bit in the last few races but the focus has always been on going as fast as I can,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d rather have the lead than be in any other spot. There is no benefit for me in worrying about that or focusing on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen added that he too had not expected to be fighting for the title, which he had believed was beyond him at the midway point of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve won championships very late, very early,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, this one, of course, is very different because I think for most of the season, it was a lot harder for us. To be honest with you, to still be in this fight is very surprising.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we need to be perfect but for me, it\u2019s just positive pressure. I\u2019m loving what I\u2019m doing. If the car is competitive, much better to be racing in it than when it\u2019s not. So every race that you do until the end, we can\u2019t afford any bad luck or mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen\u2019s dominant performance in Austin has added extra spice to this weekend\u2019s Mexican Grand Prix. Photograph: Alessio De Marco\/Zuma Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Piastri also cleared up McLaren\u2019s position after he and Norris had clashed with each other in the last two rounds. After Norris barged into Piastri while overtaking in Singapore, McLaren said there would be \u201crepercussions\u201d for the Briton.<\/p>\n

In Austin last week, however, Piastri was at fault in a first corner incident with Norris in the sprint race. With Norris starting in second and Piastri in third, the Australian tried to cut back inside his teammate but in doing so was struck by the Sauber of Nico H\u00fclkenberg. His move was risky given how crowded it can be at turn one at the Circuit of the Americas. The impact speared him into Norris at speed, lifted Piastri\u2019s car into the air and entirely sheared off one of Norris\u2019s wheels, damage that ended both their races.<\/p>\n

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Once more McLaren said they would review the incident and Piastri confirmed that as of the Mexican GP neither would face any punishment from the team. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone through it again, normally we go through every weekend, regardless of what\u2019s happened,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a degree of responsibility from my side in the sprint and we\u2019re starting this weekend with a clean slate for both of us. So, just going out and racing, and see who can come out on top.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to confirm that any potential sanctions against Norris from his move at the Singapore Grand Prix would not be imposed. \u201cThe consequences on Lando\u2019s side have been removed,\u201d he said before confirming it was the aggressive nature of his cut-back in Austin that had been considered at fault. \u201cYes, ultimately it was that. There were a lot of factors involved but yes, ultimately, that\u2019s what has been decided.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, it has emerged that the FIA has reinstated a former Russian general, under sanctions from the US, UK and Canada, to the governing body\u2019s World Motorsport Council. Victor Kiryanov, who is head of the Russian Automobile Federation, had stepped down from his role on the WMC voluntarily when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 but returned to his position in June this year after the FIA approved the reinstatement of Russian and Belarusian officials \u201cin the interests of fairness\u201d.<\/p>\n

An FIA spokesperson said: \u201cThe FIA is a politically neutral body, governed by a democratically elected senate. Members of the world motorsport council are elected, and serve, in an individual capacity. The FIA has a longstanding commitment to upholding motor sport\u2019s neutrality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts decision to allow all elected members, regardless of nationality, to continue serving their terms is in line with the approach of other international sports bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri has admitted that the late charge into a tense, three-way Formula One title fight by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-236102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}