Lando Norris crushed the opposition with a dominant drive to victory at the 2025 F1 Mexico City GP. The McLaren driver finished over 30 seconds clear of his nearest competitor, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, and reclaimed the 2025 F1 Drivers’ Championship lead from teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri in the process.
Despite missing the action in FP1, with Pato O’Ward taking the MCL39 for an outing at his home circuit as part of the FP1 rookie session initiative, Norris was in fine form from the moment he took the wheel in FP2, with an especially impressive long-run pace that caught many eyes late on in that session. That pace was even stronger on Saturday, where he coupled it with an impressive qualifying form that saw him take pole position by a margin of over a quarter of a second.
“The one where I performed best” – Norris assessment of his weekend
While speaking to the media in the FIA post-race press conference, Norris explained that the 2025 F1 Mexico City GP had been one of his best weekends, noting that he had put on his best performance of the season so far.
“I think it’s the one where I just performed the best,” he said. “I don’t know, dominant or not, but it’s the one where I think I’ve just performed best throughout – from FP2 all the way to the end of the race. In a way, I think it’s just my best performance through a whole weekend. You know, all my laps in qualifying, all my practice, all my race.“
McLaren was in a “sweet spot” that made it “just quick”
Now the championship leader, Norris believes there wasn’t anything that stood out with him about the MCL39 this weekend, stating it was “just quick” and explaining how that made his life easier out in the lead:
“It’s a good question. I mean, the car is just quick,” he explained. “It has been the whole season, but clearly, it’s still difficult to drive at times. But I think when you just find that sweet spot, it can be down the road and make your life a bit easier. So, I don’t know. It’s hard to say, like, what’s better about mine than the others, but I’ve just had a bit more grip, and that’s normally always the easiest answer.“
Norris “didn’t know” he was in a four-wide into turn 1
In perhaps the only heart-in-mouth moment in an otherwise straightforward race for the McLaren F1 driver at the Mexico City GP, Norris found himself four-wide into turn one on the opening lap, as the two Ferraris and Max Verstappen charged down his outside.
Leclerc momentarily took the lead by going over the grass in turn three, but gave it straight back on the run down to four, whilst Verstappen also went off and rejoined in a scrap with Hamilton and Russell.
When asked about how he saw those opening few corners, Norris revealed he “didn’t know” he was in the inside of a four-wide battle.
“I don’t know. I’ve not seen the replay or anything. I didn’t know we were four-wide. I just went in first and I came out third [sic], I think. So that was the most I saw, but I don’t know. I’ve not actually seen a replay, so I need to go and rewatch it.“
However, he did appreciate that his good start from the clean side of the grid meant he had a buffer for most of the nearly kilometre-long straight, which also allowed for better car positioning as he approached the first turn:
“But you know, Mexico, Turn 1 is always eventful every single season,” he said. “I don’t know if having such a good start helped me or didn’t. It definitely gave me a good length of time, with some breathing space and being able to position the car a little bit more how I need and how I want. But I still had to attack into one. I knew the others around me were going to attack, so it wasn’t an easy one. But, yeah, I kept to the head and was pretty straightforward from there.”
Why he avoided going for a two-stop strategy
Most of Norris’ rivals, including his teammate Piastri, switched to a two-stop strategy mid-race, as it became clear that the medium tyres weren’t holding up and providing the expected pace to get to the end competitively.
But the Briton felt there was no need to switch to a two-stop, as he wouldn’t gain anything from putting a fresh set of tyres just for the fastest lap attempt or anything of that kind, given his tyres were in condition as he could manage them easily, from such a long way in front:
“I just didn’t need to [stop twice]. I was definitely tempted, but it wasn’t needed,” he explained. “No point for a fastest lap or anything anymore, so didn’t have to.”
After the Mexico City GP, Norris now leads the F1 championship for the first time since April’s Saudi Arabian GP, and heads his team-mate Oscar Piastri by a single point, with Max Verstappen a further 35 points back as F1 heads to Brazil in a fortnight.
