{"id":66807,"date":"2025-08-14T04:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T04:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/66807\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T04:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T04:56:11","slug":"lando-norris-has-now-proven-insiders-in-the-paddock-wrong-over-their-clear-oscar-piastri-feeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/66807\/","title":{"rendered":"Lando Norris has now proven \u2018insiders in the paddock\u2019 wrong over their \u2018clear\u2019 Oscar Piastri feeling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lando Norris is the in-form driver after the past four rounds, as he gained 13 points on Oscar Piastri in the 2025 championship since crashing out of the Canadian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

The Briton\u2019s retirement in Montreal this June yielded his sole failure to score a point so far in 2025. But Norris<\/a> bounced back brilliantly by winning in Austria, Great Britain and Hungary to turn a 22-point deficit to his McLaren<\/a> teammate Piastri<\/a> in the F1 drivers\u2019 standings<\/a> into nine.<\/p>\n

Piastri interrupted Norris\u2019 run of results by winning the Belgian Grand Prix in front of the 25-year-old. But the 24-year-old had to settle for second place at the Red Bull Ring, Silverstone and the Hungaroring. Piastri also edged Norris for P2 and P3 in the F1 Sprint at Spa this July.<\/p>\n

Norris would have been the one settling for second best without Piastri\u2019s 10s penalty in the British Grand Prix<\/a> for a safety car restart infringement, though. Additionally, Norris won the Hungarian Grand Prix via a one-stop strategy<\/a>, as Piastri came 0.698s shy on a two-stopper.<\/p>\n

\"LandoPhoto by Mark Sutton \u2013 Formula 1\/Formula 1 via Getty ImagesPaddock \u2018insiders\u2019 were wrong to expect Oscar Piastri would run away with the 2025 F1 title<\/p>\n

Three wins in the past four Grands Prix have also seen Norris dispel the belief that figures in F1\u2019s paddock at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix<\/a> in May held that Piastri would run away and win the title. Piastri arrived at Imola on the back of winning four of the prior five Grands Prix.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri\u2019s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend<\/a><\/p>\n

Position Drivers’ Championship PointsPts 1 284 2 275 3 187 4 172 <\/p>\n

Formula Medicine founder Riccardo Ceccarelli has told Motorsport.com<\/a> that many expected Piastri would win McLaren\u2019s first drivers\u2019 title since 2008 after his form in the first six rounds before travelling to Imola. But Norris has proven they were wrong in the seven rounds since.<\/p>\n

Ceccarelli said: \u201cThe world of McLaren will now become very interesting, an environment worth exploring, because, perhaps, we all sang too early about Oscar Piastri\u2019s exploits as a potential world champion. The Australian had a poor start in the final race.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I remember that in Imola, talking to friends and insiders in the paddock, they had the clear feeling that Oscar would gradually build a points gap over Lando Norris, because he seemed more mature and performing, making fewer mistakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe seemed more relaxed and, therefore, seemed destined for an upward trend, while Norris, compared to the previous two years, seemed to be declining.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that we have passed the halfway point of the season, the gap between the two McLaren drivers is slim and quiet, quiet Norris is still close.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lando Norris\u2019 early-season mistakes gave the F1 paddock reason to question his title bid\"McLarenPhoto by SHAWN THEW\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Piastri had stretched his lead in the F1 drivers\u2019 championship to 16 points before the Emilia Romagna GP. But Norris started his response at Imola and cut his deficit to just three points before Piastri hit back in Spain. Norris would lead Piastri if not for his crash in Canada, too.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Every error that cost Lando Norris points in his failed 2024 F1 title challenge<\/a><\/p>\n

ROUNDCHAMPIONSHIP LEADERMARGIN AT MCLARENAustralian Grand PrixLando Norris (25 points)23 points over Oscar PiastriChinese Grand PrixLando Norris (44 points)10 points over Oscar PiastriJapanese Grand PrixLando Norris (62 points)13 points over Oscar PiastriBahrain Grand PrixLando Norris (77 points)3 points over Oscar PiastriSaudi Arabian Grand PrixOscar Piastri (99 points)10 points over Lando NorrisMiami Grand PrixOscar Piastri (131 points)16 points over Lando NorrisEmilia Romagna Grand PrixOscar Piastri (146 points)13 points over Lando NorrisMonaco Grand PrixOscar Piastri (161 points)3 points over Lando NorrisSpanish Grand PrixOscar Piastri (186 points)10 points over Lando NorrisCanadian Grand PrixOscar Piastri (198 points)22 points over Lando NorrisAustrian Grand PrixOscar Piastri (216 points)15 points over Lando NorrisBritish Grand PrixOscar Piastri (234 points)8 points over Lando NorrisBelgian Grand PrixOscar Piastri (266 points)16 points over Lando NorrisHungarian Grand PrixOscar Piastri (284 points)9 points over Lando Norris<\/p>\n

Norris crashed into the rear of Piastri\u2019s car in Canada<\/a> as he misjudged a chance to overtake his McLaren teammate for P4. The 10 points that Piastri then gained on Norris in Montreal are what separate them in the standings at the summer break, given the latter\u2019s form since.<\/p>\n

But the F1 paddock was right to question if Norris could deny Piastri in their fight to win the title at Imola. Before the Emilia Romagna GP, Norris called himself \u201cclueless\u201d after qualifying P6 in Bahrain<\/a> and also branded himself an \u201cidiot\u201d after crashing in qualifying in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

At the time, Piastri was not making those types of mistakes, with the only blot on his record being spinning in the rain during the Australian Grand Prix while P2 before recovering to P9. Piastri has also rarely made errors since, other than his controversial penalty at Silverstone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris is the in-form driver after the past four rounds, as he gained 13 points on Oscar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,1737,913,806,805,803,804,2333,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-66807","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-lando-norris","11":"tag-mclaren","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-oscar-piastri","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66807","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=66807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}