Piastri shrugs off performance drop as 'no major concern'

ONCE the dominant force in the McLaren camp, Oscar Piastri now finds his once-comfortable points buffer evaporating — and quickly.

- JEHRAN NAIDOO.

OSCAR Piastri. AFP

(AFP)

After a difficult weekend at the US GP in Austin, where a crash in the sprint and a fifth-place finish in the main race saw his lead shrink to just 14 points over teammate Lando Norris and 40 over Max Verstappen, Piastri, however, insists that his title ambitions remain firmly intact.

At the start of the season, Piastri looked ice-cool: winning race after race, consistently extracting the maximum from the car and building what seemed like an unassailable lead. But in the closing stages, some unforced errors and a bit of misfortune - from a first-corner sprint crash to difficulties during qualifying - have raised questions about whether the pressure of a charging Norris and a resurgent Verstappen is starting to get to him.

While the spotlight may be burning bright on Verstappen at the moment for his recent run of wins, Norris has also been close by, chipping away at his teammate’s lead.