F1 leader Piastri faces title pressure ahead of Mexico showdown

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Oscar Piastri likely can’t leave Texas fast enough. McLaren’s Formula One championship leader certainly wasn’t very fast on Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas as teammate and title rival Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen both took big bites out his points advantage at the United States Grand Prix. 

Verstappen won for the third time in four races and Norris finished second. Piastri was a disappointing fifth. 

What looked like a cruise control finish to his first career championship over the summer is now shaping up as a potential heart-pounding grind over the final five races of the season, starting this weekend in Mexico City. 

Piastri still leads Norris by 14 points and Verstappen by 40, but nothing feels comfortable anymore. 

His misery started on Saturday when he crashed into Norris on the first turn of the sprint race and knocked out both cars. Verstappen won the sprint, punctuating the mishap between teammates that came in the first race after first-lap scrap in Singapore had raised internal tension. 

Piastri started on Sunday sixth, but only made up one place. Verstappen has shaved a 104-point deficit to 40 in just four races. That includes the Azerbaijan Grand Prix when Piastri crashed on the first lap.

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