Qatar Grand Prix: Lando Norris “relaxed” before his first bid to win the Formula 1 title

Verstappen, meanwhile, staged an impressive comeback after being 104 points off the pace after the Dutch Grand Prix, the race before Italy.

“I feel the same now as I did before Mexico when I wasn’t leading,” Norris said. “I feel the same as I did in Austin when I still felt good in the car, but Max still won the race.

“I really don’t feel any different in the car than before I drove the car and now when I drive it.”

Piastri has not won a race since Zandvoort at the end of August. Since then, Verstappen has won four titles and Norris two.

Two McLaren drivers were dealt a blow when they were disqualified from last weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix after it was found that the skid blocks on their cars had worn too much.

Otherwise, Norris would have come to Qatar 30 points ahead of Piastri, but the 26-year-old said the disappointment of missing out on second place in Vegas was not difficult to overcome.

“Of course it hurts,” he said. “There’s a lot of effort put in every weekend from everyone, including me. All that effort seemed to disappear very quickly.

“But it’s the same feeling for all of us. The mechanics, the engineers, myself, everyone at McLaren, we’re frustrated with what we’ve got as a result. We’re all disappointed.”

“But I actually found it very easy to go ahead and take a few days off and come into this weekend. Yes, I’m disappointed of course. But I was fine otherwise.”

Norris said the team will try to treat this race like any other.

He added: “We are dealing with the matter very normally.” “There’s no point in trying to do it differently because we’ve done a good job and I’m very happy with the work we’ve all been doing.

“We know the areas we need to improve on, we know the things we need to improve on this year, all the standard stuff. I’m really trying not to approach it any differently because there’s no point. Nothing needs to be handled differently.”