It\u2019s a scenario that would have seemed improbable as little as a month ago and totally lacking in credibility after the Dutch Grand Prix, when Piastri established what at the time seemed a secure 34-point advantage.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761200708_112_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Nearing the end of a championship that\u2019s ebbed and flowed gently between Piastri and Norris, the points have suddenly become a torrent.<\/p>\n
Norris has slammed on scores at an exponential rate to put Piastri on the ropes \u2014 the Englishman scored three points on his teammate in Monza, six in Baku, three in Singapore, eight in Austin, 15 in Mexico City and now 23 in Sao Paulo.<\/p>\n
The trajectory isn\u2019t simply negative; it\u2019s spiralling out of control.<\/p>\n
At 24 points, this is Norris\u2019s largest advantage of the season, eclipsing the 23-point lead he opened after the Australian Grand Prix, where Piastri spun off the road in the wet.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the fourth-largest gap of the entire season, trailing only the lead Piastri enjoyed after the Dutch Grand Prix and the following two rounds.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s one-point short of the full 25 points available for a race win, and though there\u2019s still 83 points up for grabs this season, Norris\u2019s lead has moved him beyond a crucial threshold.<\/p>\n
He can now finish second to Piastri in all three remaining grands prix and the final sprint and still win the championship with what would be a two-point lead.<\/p>\n
Norris is in control.<\/p>\n
Piastri is in desperate need of some.<\/p>\n
“The blame is not all on Oscar!” | 00:36<\/p>\n
THE NUMBERS<\/p>\n
The statistics paint a grim picture.<\/p>\n
After 14 podiums from the first 16 rounds, Piastri hasn\u2019t taken home a trophy in five weekends, a span stretching from his disastrous round in Azerbaijan to his contentious penalty-hit performance in Brazil. It\u2019s his longest podium drought since the first five races of last season.<\/p>\n
Norris has outscored him a devastating 97-42 in that time, and there\u2019s red ink spilt in every key metric relative to his teammate.<\/p>\n
The qualifying pace that proved fundamental to his early-campaign strengths has been totally wiped.<\/p>\n
One-lap average<\/p>\n
Australia to Italy: Piastri 0.042 seconds faster<\/p>\n
Azerbaijan onwards: Norris 0.245 seconds faster<\/p>\n
That\u2019s resulted in him taking the two worst qualifying results of his season \u2014 ninth in Azerbaijan, eighth in Mexico \u2014 to drag down his average.<\/p>\n
Average qualifying result<\/p>\n
Australia to Italy: Piastri 1.0 place ahead (2.1 vs. 3.1)<\/p>\n
Azerbaijan onwards: Norris 2.8 places ahead (3.2 vs. 6.0)<\/p>\n
While on average he\u2019s finished higher than he\u2019s started, not only his average race result is down, but he\u2019s now finishing a long way behind Norris.<\/p>\n
Average race result<\/p>\n
Australia to Italy: Piastri 0.5 places ahead (2.5 vs. 2.9)<\/p>\n
Azerbaijan onwards: Norris 3.0 places ahead (1.8-4.8)<\/p>\n
That\u2019s had a commensurate effect on his score rate relative to his teammate, underpinning the rapid reversal in their championship fortunes.<\/p>\n
Average score<\/p>\n
Australia to Italy: Piastri 2.0 points up (20.3 vs. 18.3 points)<\/p>\n
Azerbaijan onwards: Norris 11.0 points up (19.4 vs. 8.4)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just relative to Norris either. Piastri has lost ground to almost every other frontrunning driver.<\/p>\n
Points since Italian Grand Prix, frontrunners<\/p>\n
1. Max Verstappen: 111 points<\/p>\n
2. Lando Norris: 97 points<\/p>\n
3. George Russell: 82 points<\/p>\n
4. Andrea Kimi Antonelli: 56 points<\/p>\n
5. Charles Leclerc: 51 points<\/p>\n
6. Oscar Piastri: 42 points<\/p>\n
7. Lewis Hamilton: 31 points<\/p>\n
8. Yuki Tsunoda: 16 points<\/p>\n
Losing 69 points to Verstappen means Piastri is now just 25 points ahead of the Dutchman, almost exactly the same distance he is behind Norris.<\/p>\n
Piastri finishes 5th after crash chaos | 03:20<\/p>\n
WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG?<\/p>\n
While the season isn\u2019t over yet, the cause of Piastri\u2019s sharp downturn is already being dissected.<\/p>\n
It would be convenient to say the Australian is feeling the pressure of the title fight, but it\u2019s a theory that simply doesn\u2019t fit.<\/p>\n
Why, for example, would he suddenly tense up in Azerbaijan, a circuit at which he\u2019s performed so strongly in the past, when his title lead was so comfortable? Why not immediately after the mid-season break, when the focus was more sharply on him versus Norris?<\/p>\n
It also doesn\u2019t explain his performance in Singapore, where he outqualified Norris on a track at which his teammate has historically had the upper hand, nor his improved race performance in Brazil.<\/p>\n
Instead there\u2019s a combination of elements that have worked together to hold Piastri back.<\/p>\n
The first is undeniably a pair of poor performances that cost him considerably.<\/p>\n
Piastri has never been at his competitive best in Austin and Mexico City. Historically they\u2019re weak circuits \u2014 and historically they\u2019re strong venues for Norris.<\/p>\n
In previous seasons his relative weakness at these tracks has been related to his general lack of experience with Pirelli\u2019s sensitive tyres. This year he\u2019s made considerable gains on that front \u2014 he\u2019s won at several of his previous weak tracks \u2014 but that\u2019s served to expose a more deeply seated struggle not as evident previously.<\/p>\n
Piastri\u2019s driving style is great at exploiting peak grip from the tyres via a high minimum apex speed, but he struggles to feel comfortable when the track is low on grip and the car has to slide to be fast.<\/p>\n
Both Austin and Mexico City are low-grip tracks, ensuring they remained vulnerable rounds for the Australian even in his title-contending season.<\/p>\n
He lost 23 points and the title lead over these two weekends<\/a>, leaving him suddenly vulnerable.<\/p>\n Classy Piastri congratulates Norris | 00:37<\/p>\n THE FIELD IS MORE COMPETITIVE<\/p>\n These tracks couldn\u2019t have turned up at a worse time for Piastri, and not just because we\u2019re heading towards the crunch moment in the championship.<\/p>\n The field is closer than it was at the start of the year, and Norris is also more competitive.<\/p>\n The field spread in qualifying in Brazil was the tightest of the season, with just 0.528 seconds separating the top 10 drivers in Q3 and with all 10 teams separated by just 0.892 seconds. It meant Piastri\u2019s lacklustre final lap of the session put him behind not only Norris but Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc as well.<\/p>\n Consider that before the mid-season break, when McLaren had the run of things, Piastri outqualified Norris by 0.2 seconds or more four times but never started any of those races lower than seventh on the grid and never finished lower than third.<\/p>\n Piastri, on the other hand, has been outqualified by more than 0.2 seconds at the last three grands prix but finished fifth each time.<\/p>\n Consider too that Piastri was also forced to serve a 10-second penalty at the British Grand Prix but comfortably finished second, whereas in Brazil he could do no better than fifth.<\/p>\n What\u2019s also changed is that Norris is punishing Piastri regularly.<\/p>\n Whereas earlier in the year Norris rarely capitalised on Piastri\u2019s mistakes \u2014 think back even to as recently as Azerbaijan, where he gained only six points on the worst weekend of Piastri\u2019s Formula 1 career \u2014 now he\u2019s causing maximum pain.<\/p>\n In the United States he was second behind runaway leader Max Verstappen. In Mexico he dominated the grand prix. In Brazil he won both the sprint and the grand prix, both from pole.<\/p>\n Norris has undoubtedly improved. Whether it\u2019s simply taken him time to get 100 per cent comfortable with the car this season, whether it\u2019s because he felt the pressure release after his Zandvoort DNF or whether it\u2019s because he\u2019s found a better mental approach in the mid-season break, he isn\u2019t as easily contained as he was in the first part of the season.<\/p>\n Take qualifying in Brazil as an example. When he made a mistake on his first lap of Q3 as Piastri took provisional pole, it looked a lot like a page out of the form guide of the first few months of the year. Unlike that earlier version of Norris, however, he rebounded, storming to pole position in tricky conditions.<\/p>\n The result was the first clean sweep weekend of his career \u2014 sprint pole and victory, grand prix pole and victory. It was also only the second time in his career he\u2019s won back-to-back grands prix, the first having been when he inherited the lead from the penalised Piastri at the British Grand Prix.<\/p>\n The Englishman has all the momentum, and he\u2019s making the most of the chances it\u2019s bringing him.<\/p>\n “Oh my god!” Norris on Piastri crash | 00:11<\/p>\n WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS<\/p>\n There\u2019s an additional crucial element, though it\u2019s more less tangible, that\u2019s clearly at play here.<\/p>\n Momentum isn\u2019t just with Norris. Right now it feels like it\u2019s against Piastri.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take Brazil as one example.<\/p>\n This was the circuit that was supposed to return him to competitiveness, and at first he appeared to be right on the pace, even after a narrow sprint qualifying defeat.<\/p>\n His chance to convert, however, was undone by a spin into the barriers while pursuing Antonelli for second place.<\/p>\n He\u2019d stepped onto the kerb at the exit of turn 2 on the previous lap; the difference was that just moments before doing so again on lap 6, Norris had run slightly wider over the rumble strip and kicked up some pooled rainwater<\/a>.<\/p>\n Piastri admitted that riding the kerbs in slippery conditions was a risk he chose to take. But Nico H\u00fclkenberg and Franco Colapinto were also caught out just moments later in similar fashions, demonstrating how difficult Norris\u2019s car had made the conditions.<\/p>\n Race organisers later that night cut grooves into the kerbs to stop water from pooling, preventing the same thing happening again \u2014 talk about timing.<\/p>\n By then Piastri had qualified a distant fourth for the grand prix in unexpectedly low-grip conditions.<\/p>\n Overnight storms, high winds, cool temperatures, harder tyres and the diamond-cut grooves combined to make the circuit slippery.<\/p>\n The result was that none of the top 14 drivers was able to put together their best three sectors in qualifying in a sign of just how tough the track was.<\/p>\n McLaren had also been forced to make some set-up changes after the sprint \u2014 the car was raised to protect the floor from the bumps and undulation \u2014 that appeared to put it slightly outside Piastri\u2019s comfort zone.<\/p>\n The Australian was punchy early, making that bold move for second place on Antonelli. He made it through without damage only to be pinged with a draconian 10-second time penalty for causing a collision despite paddock consensus suggesting it should have been considered a racing incident<\/a>.<\/p>\n From there McLaren put him on what turned out to be a suboptimal strategy \u2014 as opposed to, say, Norris lucking into the perfect strategy in Hungary<\/a>, when he\u2019d also found himself detached from the leaders \u2014 that left him fifth.<\/p>\n Piastri reacts after disastrous crash | 00:46<\/p>\n It was galling considering Piastri had pace in his final two stints<\/a> \u2014 after ditching his flat-spotted first set of mediums \u2014 to go with Norris. Second place should have been comfortably achievable.<\/p>\n These add up to a mighty chapter in the mythical book of driver excuses for poor results, but it\u2019s also a sobering demonstration of how momentum can work against you. When it rains, it pours.<\/p>\n They add on to several other minor incidents or 50-5o moments that have swung against him in recent rounds.<\/p>\n There were the team orders in Italy<\/a>, worth a swing of six points against him.<\/p>\n