MEXICO CITY :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.

Piastri's fifth-place finish saw race winner Norris move one point ahead in the standings with four rounds remaining. Piastri was denied a shot at taking fourth in the race due to a virtual safety car in the last two laps.

"It wasn't so much the pace of the car because the car was pretty quick this weekend," said Piastri, who started from seventh place on the grid.

"It was more just trying to unlock it, and I felt like I've potentially made some steps in doing that today.

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