Oscar Piastri told where he should have been ‘wiser’ during Mexican GP as Lando Norris takes title advantage

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Lando Norris has regained control of the 2025 F1 standings with his win at the Mexican Grand Prix, whilst Oscar Piastri struggled to recoup the losses incurred from a nightmare qualifying session on Saturday.

The maximum haul of points from the British driver saw him take the lead of the F1 standings by a single point, putting the ball back into Norris’ court as the two McLaren drivers look to battle it out in the remaining four race weekends.

After starting from seventh on the grid after being promoted a place due to a penalty for Carlos Sainz, Piastri’s main championship rival Norris sped away from the rest of the pack following the drop of the lights, leaving the Australian with it all to do.

He was locked in a battle with the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli for a number of frustrating laps for the 24-year-old.

Piastri ended up getting past Antonelli after a lightning-fast pit stop by the McLaren pit crew, which saw him overtake the Italian in the pit lane.

READ MORE: Ralf Schumacher says Lando Norris has now made a game-changing realisation about Oscar Piastri

David Croft thinks Oscar Piastri should have been ‘wiser’ to George Russell swapping positions with Kimi Antonelli

However, before he was looking at the rear wing of Antonelli’s W16, Piastri was right on the gearbox of Russell before Mercedes decided to switch the order of their cars to allow their British driver to unleash his true pace.

With the three cars split by just over a second, the Mercedes duo managed to pull the move off at turn four without jeopardising the 19-year-old’s race, much to the dismay of the McLaren star.

Speaking on Sky Sports F1’s coverage of the Mexico City Grand Prix, commentator David Croft highlighted the manoeuvre as a potential opportunity that Piastri should have benefited from.

He told co-commentator Karun Chandhok (21:06 27/10), “I rather get the feeling that Oscar Piastri might have been a bit wiser to that one there, and could have dived down the inside of Kimi Antonelli.”

After a brief interruption in which Russell sarcastically thanked his team for the long-awaited swap, Croft added, “Well, George Russell is now a very happy man; he’s now chasing Ollie Bearman for that podium.

“Piastri should have been a bit wiser to that, for me. Antonelli was always going to move over to defend once Russell went past him and leave a little bit of a gap down the inside.

“You’ve got to go for it if you’re Piastri, in the position that he’s in.”

READ MORE: Unbroadcast Oscar Piastri radio shows how much he’s feeling the pressure at Mexican Grand Prix

George Russell and Kimi Antonelli react to Mercedes’ team orders at the Mexican Grand Prix

Piastri was finally successful in his bid to get past the Silver Arrows, overtaking Russell at turn one with 10 laps remaining in the race.

After Russell’s ‘fiery’ demands over the team radio to make Antonelli give way to him, the two Mercedes drivers then reversed the positions back to the original order before the call was made.

Speaking about the moment after the race in Mercedes’ official race report, Russell said, “It was difficult being stuck in a train of cars and, in particular, with the dirty air.

“We inverted the cars to try and maximise the team result, but ultimately we just didn’t have the pace to fight our way forward.”

Antonelli stated that the team will look into the decision that was made going forward, saying, “We opted to invert the cars in our second stint; we were in a train behind Bearman, and the tyre degradation was getting worse due to that.

“We will review whether that was the best decision or not, but ultimately, we didn’t have the pace today to battle forward, and both George and I lost out to Piastri, who seemed to have better speed.”