Jolyon Palmer spotted one ‘big’ mistake Lando Norris kept making during the United States Grand Prix

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Lando Norris gained five important points on McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in the fight for the 2025 F1 title.

Despite spending the majority of the United States Grand Prix behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Norris found a way past his rival with a handful of laps to go.

It has helped him draw within 14 points of Piastri in the drivers’ championship with five races to go. It sets up a tantalising finish to the year, and the intensity of such a fight will be ramping up over the remainder of the Formula 1 season.

Norris got a ‘telling’ reaction from the crowd in Austin when fans were asked who they preferred between him and his teammate.

Piastri was more frustrated than Norris after a crash during Saturday’s sprint, but with the next race just days away, he’ll need to put it behind him quickly.

READ MORE: Max Verstappen makes F1 championship claim and Lando Norris comment after winning the United States GP

Lando Norris’ ‘big’ mistake was repeating the same moves in Charles Leclerc battle at the US GP

Martin Brundle believes McLaren are doomed to fail because they have two competitive and hungry drivers. They’re contracted for the next few seasons, meaning that it could pose a few difficulties for them down the line.

Norris has more experience, and it might pay dividends over the next few weekends, particularly at the flyaway races that Piastri will have been to a handful of times. In his battle with Leclerc in Austin, he repeated one ‘big’ error that Jolyon Palmer spotted straight away.

“I think you’ve got to brake later on the initial brake at [turn] 12 to threaten to maybe go around the outside, or to force Charles to go deep as well, and then you can get a chance to get more of a look on the outside,” Palmer said on F1TV. “It is difficult with the sequence of corners that you’ve got.

“If you’ve got a left-hander into a left-hander, the switchback works so easily, because then you have the inside and then ‘See you later mate, you’re out and I’m through.’

“But when you go left-hander, so you get the switchback and now you’re on the outside for the next right-hander, then you’re like ‘He’s gone in deep, I’ll get the switchback again.’ but then it’s another left-hander, you just get shuffled out,” he continued. “So, you’ve got to start mixing it up.

“When I was looking at that, I just thought Charles was covering exactly where the sort of scripted move would be, and Lando just for a couple of laps, was on that scripted move, which is exactly what he did also last year with Max, until finally he went for the big send, which is now famous around the outside.”

READ MORE: Charles Leclerc names who he thinks will win 2025 F1 title between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris

Why McLaren are under extra pressure after Max Verstappen’s United States Grand Prix victory

Verstappen’s Texas clean sweep now puts McLaren under some intense scrutiny for the rest of the campaign. His charge feels inevitable.

With two more sprint weekends left, the reigning champion has extra chances to steal points off their drivers if they aren’t on the ball.

They can no longer afford to be beaten by him at every remaining race and still come out on top. A retirement for Norris or Piastri would blow things wide open.

From a reliability standpoint, they need to be perfect, and from a performance one, they need to find a way to get back ahead of Verstappen a few times if they want to achieve a first title double since 1998.