McLaren just made a behind the scenes Oscar Piastri decision that left Lando Norris relieved

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There’s a strong likelihood that the Formula 1 title fight remains a two-way battle heading into the final four rounds of the season.

Max Verstappen still has to overcome an unlikely 36-point gap in the drivers’ championship to be in contention at the final race in Abu Dhabi. After showing some weakness for the first time in a while in Mexico, it feels as though McLaren are back in pole position once more.

Lando Norris dominated mercilessly, winning by over 30 seconds from Charles Leclerc in second place, and grabbing the lead of the championship for the first time since April. He has built a lot of momentum, just as teammate Oscar Piastri is really struggling.

McLaren have a clever engine strategy to make sure that their drivers have the best available equipment between now and the end of the year. Piastri has the full support of McLaren despite his struggles, but desperately needs to respond with a strong result at the upcoming race in Brazil.

READ MORE: Simon Lazenby has noticed a change in Oscar Piastri since he started winning Formula 1 races

McLaren scrapping Lando Norris repercussions has left him relieved after Oscar Piastri dive

Piastri didn’t act like a champion in Mexico, according to ex-Red Bull driver Robert Doornbos, who thinks he approached Sunday’s race too calmly. He wanted to see more aggression and urgency from a driver in his position.

Despite his struggles, McLaren boss Andrea Stella told Piastri to be proud of his improvements throughout the weekend. Now that he is on level ground with his teammate, it’s going to be a straight fight to the finish.

That’s because McLaren ditched their ‘repercussions’ for Norris, as a result of his first lap bump into Piastri in Singapore. ESPN’s Laurence Endmondson suggests that it has left the Briton relieved, and helped to turn a new page.

“McLaren actually got rid of those repercussions entirely off the back of what happened in Austin,” he said on ESPN’s Unlapped Podcast. “I think there was a sense of relief from both drivers, maybe not so much Oscar, but certainly from Lando.

“But the team itself as well that rather than having this thing hang over them through to the end of the year, that they could basically say ‘OK, well what happened in the Austin sprint race on the first lap kind of means that it’s equal.’

“They decided that Oscar, while it wasn’t a wild move, what he was trying, it was his aggression to try and get back underneath Norris that led to the collision that then led to both of the McLarens being taken out.”

READ MORE: Oscar Piastri told he is now ‘done’ in the 2025 F1 title fight after losing one vital thing

Is Lando Norris now the favourite for the 2025 Formula 1 title?

Now that Norris leads the way in the title fight, seems to be the quickest on track at the moment, and has confidence, there’s a strong argument to suggest that it’s his to lose from here on in.

Timo Glock doesn’t feel Norris is the favourite unless he has understood the reasons why he failed earlier on in the season.

It took him some time to recover from losing the lead of the championship the first time around, but his experience has paid dividends and should continue to do so over the next few weeks.

Norris showed a rare demonstration of power in Mexico, which proved that he has exactly what it takes to reign supreme. Now, he just needs to repeat that a few more times.