Norris talks down title momentum despite dislodging Piastri in Mexico

Lando Norris has insisted the dominant win in the Mexico City Grand Prix that has taken him back to the summit of F1's world championship does not yet carry any wider significance until he follows it up with "two, three or four in a row".

Oscar Piastri's unbroken 189-day stay at the top of the Drivers' Championship was ended by Norris on Sunday as the Briton claimed victory with the largest winning margin of the season while his McLaren team-mate finished fifth.

The result hands Norris a slender one-point championship advantage over Piastri, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen still in the hunt too at 36 points behind, with four race weekends of the season to go.

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The Briton admits his form in Mexico made the event "one of my best weekends of the whole season" but, in a year in which he has struggled to consistently extract the best of the team's MCL39 car, he was not getting carried away by the eye-catching result.

Asked if he had doubted himself earlier the year, when regular mistakes in his long-time stronghold of qualifying proved particularly costly in his fight against Piastri, Norris replied: "I certainly did [doubt myself], because I never want to blame my car.

"Certainly when the car was winning and Oscar was winning, the last thing I could do is use the excuse that my car is not good enough.

"I wasn't getting up to grips and wasn't finding a way to make it work, and I'm finding a better way to make it work now.

"So it's as simple as that. Of course, it gives you good confidence.

"One race, really, I don't care about."

Four race weekends now remain in this year's title battle - with the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, which stages the year's penultimate Sprint, next up on November 9.

Norris added: "I'm not a believer in momentum in some ways. One great weekend really doesn't mean anything.

"Two, three or four in a row means something."

'It's not about reinventing myself' - what now for Piastri after loss of title lead?

While Norris' form has steadily improved over recent months, Piastri has now gone four races without a podium finish in a sequence of results that has seen his once-comfortable 34-point title lead over Norris completely evaporate.

While the Australian's race from seventh on Sunday's grid in Mexico City was always going to be one of damage limitation, Piastri revealed there had actually been a further challenge at play for him across the 71 laps - making changes to his driving style to get the most out of the car.

"For me the biggest thing is trying to learn the things I wanted to learn today," said Piastri, who finished on driver of the day Oliver Bearman's tail.

"Yesterday it became obvious after the session that there was a few things I needed to change pretty majorly in how I was driving.

"Today was about trying to limit the damage, but also trying to learn some things about that. If I've made some progress with that I'll be happy.

"Obviously when your team-mate wins the race finishing fifth is nothing that extravagant.

"I've just had to drive very differently the last couple of weekends - or I've not driven differently when I should have.

"I think that's been a little bit strange to get my head around because I've been driving exactly the same as I have all year.

"It's just the last couple of weekends the car or the tyres or something required quite a different way of driving. I've just not really gone to that."

Piastri added: "I've tried to change it up a bit today and once we analyse if it's effective or not that will hopefully help see some progress.

"The car's obviously not changed for a while so it's nothing to do with the car. Given how the pace has differentiated, clearly Lando has found it easier to dial into that and I haven't.

"It's important to remember the other 19 races and the way I've been driving has been working pretty well.

"It's about adding some tools to the toolbox, rather than reinventing myself."

'We need to be faster' - Verstappen and Red Bull's reality check?

Verstappen also gained two places in the race, having adopted a different tyre strategy to those around him, after his own qualifying struggles to finish on the podium for the sixth race running.

From 104 points back on Piastri at the end of August, the Dutchman has raced back into late contention for a fifth consecutive title but the scale of Norris' win on Sunday underlined that McLaren remained formidable.

"It's fine to think different [on strategy], but the most important thing is we need to be faster," he said.

"We had some really good races, but even in the races we won if you look at the tyre management then McLaren are still very strong.

"Then in a weekend when they have more pace in general you have no chance."

Formula 1's thrilling title race continues in Brazil with a Sprint weekend at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on November 7-9, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime