Mexico City Grand Prix: Lando Norris looks to capitalize on pole position

Meanwhile, Piastri appeared somewhat forlorn. He had had a tough weekend in the US a week ago and thought he had found the answers. But as he put it: “What was a bit surprising here is that the gap was roughly the same in every session.

“I feel like I did some good laps over the weekend, but it seemed like everything was about 0.4-0.5 seconds off.”

Team principal Andrea Stella said Piastri was losing a bit everywhere. “I feel like I did a reasonable job and the car felt reasonable as well,” Piastri said. “So, yeah, the lack of lap time is a bit of a mystery.”

Piastri has been well off Norris’ pace whether over short or long distances, low or high fuel, so the biggest hope is that he said of the race: “If I can get the pace out of the car, we can have some fun. We’ve just got to try and get it open.”

This is Piastri’s fifth difficult weekend in a row, as his form has mysteriously evaporated since his win in Holland at the end of August.

He didn’t speak directly about what this means for the tournament, but there was no hiding the meaning behind one of his comments: “There are a lot of things I could worry about, but ultimately being so far away when you feel you’ve done a reasonable job is a tough place to be in. That’s my biggest worry at the moment.”

Stella said conditions in Mexico, like those in Austin, are ones where Norris thrives while Piastri is less comfortable – low grip and hot tyres.

“Every piece of evidence, every piece of data, every indirect measure of information that we have, tells us that there is nothing wrong with the car,” he said.

He added that it was “good” that McLaren could “confirm that we can have the fastest car”, adding that “their focus is on stopping Verstappen’s momentum.”