Lando Norris owned Mexico City on Sunday, and not everyone loved it.
From pole, the McLaren driver disappeared up the road and never looked back, converting a bold qualifying lap into a 30‑second demolition job over Charles Leclerc. By the time he pulled up in front of the grandstands at the AutĂłdromo Hermanos RodrĂguez, the championship picture had tilted his way again — Norris back on top of the standings, the swagger back in the orange camp.
Then came the boos.
As James Hinchcliffe conducted the podium interviews in the stadium section, cheers met Leclerc and Max Verstappen. Norris, the race winner and new points leader, got a chorus of disapproval from a slice of the Foro Sol crowd that’s never shy about showing it. He let the noise roll past.
“I mean, it’s one weekend at a time,” he began, pausing as the jeers swelled. Then, composed: “It’s one weekend at a time. So, you know, I’m happy. I’m focused on myself. I keep my head down, I ignore all of this, and, yeah, I keep to myself, and it’s working at the minute. So I’m happy.”
It wasn’t hard to see why the mood in the grandstands was mixed. Verstappen, the four‑time reigning World Champion and a familiar conqueror here, started only fifth and had to settle for the lower steps this time while Norris turned the race into a private time trial. Oscar Piastri, who arrived in Mexico with the championship lead, started seventh and could do no better than fifth at the flag. The one‑point swing between the McLaren pair is the sort of thing that can decide titles; it’s also the sort of thing that lights up social media.
And yes, that background chatter was humming: unfounded claims of McLaren tilting the table against Piastri bubbled online through the weekend. There’s no there there — just the usual internet smoke when a title fight swings on a big Sunday. But it does help explain why the reception for Norris was frostier than usual in a city that often sides with Verstappen and feeds on a bit of theater.
Strip away the noise and Mexico was about one driver operating on a different plane. Norris nailed the launch, controlled the early laps, and from there it was metronomic — manage the tyres, stretch the gap, manage the race. Leclerc could only chase shadows. Verstappen, starting from the midfield, couldn’t haul himself into the fight for the win. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, saw his afternoon complicated by a penalty after an incident with Verstappen, adding a subplot that didn’t touch the headline.
The headline is this: Norris has the momentum again. He leaves Mexico one point clear of Piastri, with Verstappen looming, and a São Paulo weekend waiting to ask new questions. There’s an edge to Norris now that wasn’t always there in the near‑miss seasons. He’s sharper in traffic, tidier under pressure, and happy to say little when saying little is the smart play.
If the boos rattled him, there was no sign of it. If anything, they’re a backhanded measure of the stakes. Verstappen’s been there and heard worse through the years; winning and winning a lot makes a pantomime villain somewhere on the road. Norris is finding out what that feels like when the silverware starts following him home.
What happens next? McLaren will point to a car that’s quick everywhere and two drivers still in the hunt — one with the lead, one with the speed to take it back — and a factory that’s hitting its marks in a long season. Ferrari will take solace from Leclerc’s pace even if the gap stung in Mexico, while Hamilton’s penalty will be one for the stewards’ notes, not the title scrapbook. Red Bull, and Verstappen in particular, will know that starting fifth is a luxury they can’t afford if Norris keeps qualifying on the sharp end.
The Foro Sol will move on. The title fight won’t. Norris just reminded the paddock that when McLaren hands him clean air, he can turn it into a canyon. The soundtrack didn’t flatter him on Sunday, but there’s only one noise that matters in this sport — the one that starts when the visor goes down and ends when the chequered flag waves. On that front, in Mexico, he was untouchable.
