Sao Paulo Grand Prix: Lando Norris says improving consistency has helped him regain the championship lead

Norris has gained 35 points on Piastri since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August, which Piastri won while Norris retired with a fuel line fault.

This result made Piastri a strong candidate to win the title, especially in the context of his consistency throughout the season up to that point. Norris is still one victory away from Piastri’s tally of six wins so far this season.

But Norris rejected the idea that he had started taking more risks since that race because he felt he had nothing to lose.

“Maybe during qualifying you think: ‘Well, we better do our best.’ But it’s not like every approach, every lap I do is: ‘I have nothing to lose here, let’s try a little harder.’ That’s definitely not true,” he said.

“I definitely wouldn’t put it down to that. I’d put it more down to just working hard and having a really good team around me. I put 99% of it down to that, 1% is a combination of different different things. But most of the results come from the work done rather than the mindset or the stuff.”

He said that he does not think about the fact that he leads the championship for the first time since the fourth race of the season, unless other people raise the matter with him.

“I don’t think that in terms of racing and actually achieving the dream of being a champion, I still don’t feel any different yet. I think nothing is finished, nothing is accomplished,” he said.

“There’s still over 120 points or something up for grabs, so it doesn’t mean anything at the moment. It’s a nice idea, again, to look at and think about, but other than that it’s good to be out there, but to win next weekend and win the final race, that’s still my goal.”