Lando Norris told "luck" helped him, "out-qualified, out-raced" by Oscar Piastri

Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer believes “luck” is largely keeping Lando Norris in contention for the 2025 world championship.

Norris trails McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri by just nine points heading into the final 10 races of the season following a see-saw intra-team battle.

The Briton led the way in the standings early on when he kicked off the campaign by winning the Australian Grand Prix, but Piastri has headed the championship table since taking victory in April’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Piastri has racked up six victories to Norris’s five, but recent momentum has been on the latter’s side, with Norris winning three of the four races prior to F1’s summer break in August.

"I've not switched off over the summer break this year," Palmer, who scored nine points in 35 races for Renault between 2016 and 2017, told the F1 Nation podcast.

"I've been just poring through data and numbers. I'm not in my racing driver era now. I'm going to be washed by the time we get to Qatar. I'm going to have no energy. I didn't recharge the batteries.

"But what I've been thinking is Piastri's been the better driver. And we're talking about the fine margins: nine points, Lando winning three of the last four.

"But on pretty much all stats and viewing, Piastri has been the better driver so far. And I looked through and I think that championship lead is nine points - could easily be 61 points but for largely a bit of luck."

Key title fight moments pinpointed

Palmer went on to pick out four key moments in the season so far which have worked out in Norris’s favour.

"So I'm thinking there's 16 points lost in Melbourne. Both McLarens go skittling off through the gravel. Oscar's is slightly more than Lando's, but really these, you know, you can't judge this. And it cost Oscar on the day 16 points,” Palmer explained.

"I'm thinking Silverstone: tough decision that I've not seen penalised since or before and it cost Oscar the win.

"Imola, the timing of the safety car: really tough decision and it's just a bit of bad luck. It cost him at the time only six points in terms of a swing.

“And then you've got Budapest. A great win for Lando. Absorbed the pressure, did what he had to do, but he did it because he had a bad start, was in the wrong position, and then sort of got into the right strategy that Oscar wasn't given.”

Palmer added: "When you look at all those points lost, even the two points in the Miami sprint, whereas safety car timing cost Oscar the win and gave it to Lando, there's been a lot of things that have just gone towards Lando in these first 14 races.

"Oscar's overall outqualified him by a slender margin and I think he's outraced him and the gap could be so much more comfortable, but as it is, it's nine and it's absolutely on for anyone."