Oscar Piastri finished fifth in the Mexico Grand Prix, but lost the F1 championship lead to team-mate Lando Norris

McLaren's Oscar Piastri surrendered the Formula One championship lead to teammate Lando Norris after the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday but the Australian sounded an upbeat note about his progress and said he had taken steps to unlock his car's pace.

Oscar Piastri's lead in the Formula 1 championship is shrinking after a tough weekend in Texas. At the United States Grand Prix, his teammate Lando Norris and Red Bull's Max Verstappen gained ground.

Championship leader thought his struggles last weekend were specific to the Circuit of The Americas, but they have returned to dog him in Mexico – where he qualified eighth, half a second off team-mat

Oscar Piastri finished fifth in the Mexico Grand Prix on Sunday (local time) as teammate Lando Norris won the race and overtook the Aussie in the championship race by just one point. The P5 finish for Piastri might have been a step in the right direction after he started seventh on the grid,

Oscar Piastri remains unclear about the cause of his poor performance in qualifying for Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix.

It carried him 0.262 seconds clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who was three-tenths adrift. Mercedes George Russell was fourth and Verstappen fifth while Piastri struggled to qualify eighth. If all drivers finish where they start, Norris will take the world title lead from Piastri.

F1championship leader Oscar Piastri is proving that his personal impact goes far beyond lap times and podiums.