the top 10 greatest comebacks in the history of the sport<\/a>.<\/p>\nNorris\u2019s destiny is still in his hands. He can win the championship without needing other results to work in his favour.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s an irony in the fact that McLaren\u2019s domination could make things harder for him by making big points swings more difficult.<\/p>\n
A bad weekend for Norris and Piastri is still likely to result in a second-place finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would certainly make my life easier if there were some more drivers in between every now and then,\u201d he said, per ESPN. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing is, we\u2019re so dominant as a team. That almost makes my life harder, so that\u2019s really the most frustrating part of it all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still like to think may the best man win and if that\u2019s the case at the end of the season, then I\u2019ll respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Briton, however, said he wasn\u2019t hoping for similar bad luck to befall his teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, because in the end, if he\u2019s done a better job, I give credit to him and I say he\u2019s done a better job. That\u2019s just how I am,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t wish it, I just wish that I can find that last little bit, that I can still win the championship without anything happening and that\u2019s the way I wish to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri, though, was far less convinced of the comfort of his position.<\/p>\n
ZANDVOORT, NETHERLANDS – AUGUST 31: Oscar Piastri of Australia driving the (81) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes leads Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (4) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Netherlands at Circuit Zandvoort on August 31, 2025 in Zandvoort, Netherlands. (Photo by Joe Portlock\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a much bigger gap than this [in the junior series] and had it pretty much erased before the final round,\u201d he said, per the BBC. \u201cIt\u2019s still far too early to be kind of calculating and settling for positions that aren\u2019t first.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me the approach is still exactly the same, and that won\u2019t change until the gap is pretty significantly bigger or the amount of races is significantly smaller.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit more difficult now, but I don\u2019t expect much to change. I think we\u2019ll race each other the same way. I think the amount of risk taking will be the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re both trying to be as fast as we can. It\u2019s not like we\u2019ve been holding anything back from that side of things. So I don\u2019t expect anything to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the mindset Piastri must take. His give-nothing, workmanlike approach to the season has paid him back handsomely \u2014 it shouldn\u2019t be forgotten that he was set to take a 16-point lead into this weekend before Norris retired from second place.<\/p>\n
He had the Dutch Grand Prix under total control, which was already a significant win at a track his teammate dominated the previous season.<\/p>\n
To even contemplate easing back or playing a numbers game could be fatal to his championship chances.<\/p>\n
Piastri has a chance to press his advantage, and you\u2019d expect nothing other than for him to take it.<\/p>\n
‘Rookie mistake’ costs Leclerc his race | 01:23<\/p>\n
PIASTRI TO GIVE UP CAR IN FP1 TO McLAREN JUNIOR<\/b><\/p>\n
Piastri\u2019s attempt to score back-to-back wins \u2014 and to avenge last year\u2019s surprise defeat to Charles Leclerc \u2014 will take an immediate minor blow, however, when he hands over his car to McLaren development driver Alex Dunne.<\/p>\n
Each team is required the regulations to field a rookie in four practice sessions, two per car.<\/p>\n
Dunne has already had one outing when he commandeered Norris\u2019s car in Austria.<\/p>\n
Norris skipping FP1 had no material impact on his performance that weekend. He topped the two remaining practice sessions, dominated qualifying and controlled the race.<\/p>\n
While Monza is in the Piastri column, the Australian doesn\u2019t have quite the same record of control at the Italian circuit as Norris has enjoyed in Austria.<\/p>\n
With Norris sure to approach the weekend with all guns blazing, Piastri will have his work cut out for him to make up for lost time.<\/p>\n
For Dunne, though, this is a potentially significant opportunity.<\/p>\n
He was immensely impressive on his first outing at the Red Bull Ring. After some time spent evaluating McLaren\u2019s latest upgrades, he bolted on a set of softs to set a stunning lap good enough for fourth in the order just 0.069 seconds behind Piastri.<\/p>\n
Team boss Andrea Stella said his work during the session was \u201cquite diligent and impressive\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen he had also the chance to show some speed, and \u2014 no surprise \u2014 he\u2019s a fast driver,\u201d Stella said.<\/p>\n
Rising star Alex Dunne will get a drive in the McLaren car this year.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
He was running with a lighter fuel load and set his time near the end of the hour, when the track was fastest, but it wasn\u2019t just the time that impressed so much as how quickly he got himself comfortable on the big stage.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been rapid in his first Formula 2 season and led the championship for a period earlier in the year before a combination of technical penalties and driver mistakes dropped him off the head of the table. He\u2019s a nonetheless commendable fifth in the standings and only 30 points off top stop.<\/p>\n
If he can impress again in practice, it\u2019ll only cement the Irishman as an F1 candidate.<\/p>\n
Further down the gird, Paul Aron will take over from Franco Colapinto in FP1 in another potentially significant moment.<\/p>\n
Faith in Colapinto has waned over the season, and without an obvious experienced alternative, Aron looms as his potential replacement should the team decide to pull the trigger.<\/p>\n
Colapinto was praised for his strongest weekend yet in the Netherlands \u2014 he finished 11th and with a better managed race could have scored his first points \u2014 but you\u2019d never want to second-guess Alpine\u2019s thinking on driver management.<\/p>\n
‘Most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen!’ | 01:14<\/p>\n
ANDREA KIMI ANTONELLI RETURNS TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME<\/b><\/p>\n
This time last year the world got its first glimpse at Andrea Kimi Antonelli in a Formula 1 car.<\/p>\n
By then Antonelli had become seriously hyped for his rapid and glittering rise through the junior ranks, with some regarding him as the sport\u2019s next generational talent.<\/p>\n
He completed one lap in his Mercedes during FP1 in Monza and then promptly embedded himself in the barriers in a whopping 52g crash.<\/p>\n
Later that weekend he was confirmed as Hamilton\u2019s replacement at the team for 2025.<\/p>\n
It was hardly the ideal curtain-raiser, but Mercedes\u2019s belief in the Italian was unshakeable.<\/p>\n
One year on and we can take stock on how well founded that belief is.<\/p>\n
The season started well. Despite being eliminated from qualifying in Q1 in Australia, in treacherously difficult conditions on Sunday he finished a fantastic fourth.<\/p>\n
His trajectory looked smooth and positive from there, and it was assumed that he\u2019d take another step when the sport returned to Europe, to tracks he knew well.<\/p>\n
Instead things took a turn for the worse.<\/p>\n
Mercedes brought an upgrade \u2014 since rolled back \u2014 that made it much more difficult for to extract pace from the car.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s scored just one point from the eight European rounds so far \u2014 though bizarrely those races were punctuated by his maiden podium in Canada.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s fair to say his first season so far, a year since signing is contract, has been a mixed bag.<\/p>\n
But Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said it was exactly what he\u2019d expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we made it clear last year in Monza that we would give him the opportunity, we were also saying that we would give him a year of learning,\u201d Wolff said, per ESPN.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then there would be moments where we\u2019d tear our hair out and there would be other moments of brilliance.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, up and downs, but I was absolutely expecting that from this season and every one of those days is going to be a learning for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team has also said that the psychological pain from Antonelli\u2019s crash in Monza this time last year has taken time to heal, with work being done to build up the Italian\u2019s confidence.<\/p>\n
This week might be a useful test, then, of how much work has been completed \u2014 and of how much is still to be done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Very few drivers will ever get to experience the feeling of walking through the gates to the Autodromo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[137922,137900,29621,91192,6207,13328,22619,521,186,22631,7907,137893,23081,29641,943,137901,6872,48201,117764,5070,1395,137921,137905,45208,29609,74280,137894,137912,137902,108056,136910,24394,299,137908,4199,137892,707,4200,4292,137910,137897,137898,137890,137899,2199,22645,137914,137888,137907,1711,137919,117742,137906,26888,2927,1477,300,24993,17670,137918,22617,137923,137895,137911,42192,137920,137916,25010,137903,72307,137891,137915,137889,133156,4717,91915,137904,137917,43259,137909,79,137896,16,137913,15,17669],"class_list":{"0":"post-399681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-affected-oil-line","9":"tag-affected-power-unit","10":"tag-agence-france-presse","11":"tag-alex-dunne","12":"tag-america","13":"tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","14":"tag-andrea-stella","15":"tag-asia","16":"tag-australia","17":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","18":"tag-austria","19":"tag-back-to-back-wins","20":"tag-british-broadcasting-corporation","21":"tag-british-driver","22":"tag-canada","23":"tag-car-engine-equation","24":"tag-carlos-sainz","25":"tag-championship-chances","26":"tag-championship-race","27":"tag-charles-leclerc","28":"tag-china","29":"tag-combustion-engine","30":"tag-development-driver","31":"tag-driver-management","32":"tag-eastern-asia","33":"tag-engine-failure","34":"tag-engine-headquarters","35":"tag-engine-issue","36":"tag-engine-oil-line","37":"tag-engine-penalty","38":"tag-engine-trouble","39":"tag-espn-inc","40":"tag-europe","41":"tag-european-rounds","42":"tag-f1","43":"tag-famous-logo","44":"tag-formula-1","45":"tag-formula1","46":"tag-franco-colapinto","47":"tag-fresh-motor","48":"tag-horror-day","49":"tag-ideal-curtain-raiser","50":"tag-immediate-minor-blow","51":"tag-italian-circuit","52":"tag-italy","53":"tag-junior-ranks","54":"tag-junior-series","55":"tag-kid-watching","56":"tag-kilowatt-boost","57":"tag-lando-norris","58":"tag-lighter-fuel-load","59":"tag-maiden-podium","60":"tag-man-win","61":"tag-material-impact","62":"tag-milan","63":"tag-netherlands","64":"tag-north-america","65":"tag-northern-america","66":"tag-northern-europe","67":"tag-numbers-game","68":"tag-oceania","69":"tag-oil-flow","70":"tag-oil-leak","71":"tag-oil-line","72":"tag-paul-aron","73":"tag-penalty-odds","74":"tag-philippe-lopez","75":"tag-pit-talk","76":"tag-points-swings","77":"tag-power-unit","78":"tag-power-unit-rotation","79":"tag-power-dependent-track","80":"tag-power-sensitive-circuit","81":"tag-practice-sessions","82":"tag-press-conference","83":"tag-receiving-end","84":"tag-remaining-practice-sessions","85":"tag-rookie-mistake","86":"tag-southern-europe","87":"tag-special-moments","88":"tag-sports","89":"tag-title-chase","90":"tag-uk","91":"tag-unit-rotation-program","92":"tag-united-kingdom","93":"tag-western-europe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n