Oscar Piastri denied that there has been a “trend” behind the inroads that McLaren team-mate Lando Norris has made on his Formula 1 points lead over recent races.
Piastri has gone into the summer break with a nine-point advantage over Norris as the Drivers’ title appears all but certain to be a shootout between the McLaren duo.
The Australian has topped the standings since taking three consecutive victories between Bahrain and Miami, adding two more wins in Spain and Belgium since then.
But while Piastri’s gap extended to 22 points when Norris retired in Canada, the Briton has prevailed three times in the last four races to reignite his championship bid.
However, Piastri was on track to claim the spoils at Silverstone until he was penalised, while he had chances to beat Norris in the Austrian and Hungarian Grands Prix.
That has provoked Piastri, who is on a record-closing 41-point scoring streak, to stress that he is not worried that the recent momentum has been with his team-mate.
“The biggest lead of the year has been 23, and it’s not moved within 10 points for the last 10 races almost,” Piastri told media including Motorsport Week.
“So, I’m not really that fussed with that. Obviously, it would have been nice to have the extra points, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a trend.
“One second different, and the trend would have looked quite different today. Things happening in the last few races differently could have meant quite a different picture.
“But you can say that about pretty much every race this year and about every championship ever.
“So, I’m not concerned at all. I think the pace for the first half of the year has been very, very strong, and I think the last few races as well have been very good.
“I feel like I’ve driven a lot of strong races, and it’s been very tightly fought. So, I expect more of the same after the break.”
How Piastri has evolved to launch F1 title bid
Piastri has provided a much stronger intra-team challenge to Norris in 2025 compared to the previous campaign, where he propped up a substantial 82 points behind.
The eight-time race winner, who was out-qualified 20 times during 2024, has highlighted that central to closing the gap has been improving his execution over one lap.
“I’ve been happy with qualifying this year,” he expressed. “Still not been perfect, but it’s certainly been a good improvement from last year.
“I don’t really feel like there’s one area that’s lacking. I felt the same last year; it’s just that I never got it all together on the same weekend very often.
“This year, I felt much more like that, and it’s just going to be about trying to do that every weekend to the end of the year. So that’s going to be the key.”
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