Sawt Falasteen - Norris brushes off Dutch setback before Italian GP battle with Piastri

Norris suffered a mechanical failure in the closing laps of last weekend's race as the Briton chased down championship leader, and eventual winner at Zandvoort, Piastri.

That misfortune allowed Australian Piastri to open up a 34-point gap on Norris which could prove crucial in the race for the F1 drivers' title.

"I mean, of course, it's frustrating... The reasoning of it makes it pretty easy to just move on," Norris told reporters on Thursday.

"If it was something I did, I'd probably still be kicking myself, or I'd still be pretty down about it. But I think the fact is, it had nothing to do with me. It had nothing to do with what I did, or how I was driving.

"If I lose the championship by those points then I just have to keep my chin up, my head held high, and try to do it again next year."

Piastri is taking nothing for granted ahead of an intriguing weekend in which Lewis Hamilton will race at the Temple of Speed for the first time as a Ferrari driver.

"It's still far too early to be calculating and settling for positions that aren't first. So for me, the approach is exactly the same," he said.

"Yeah, that won't change until the gap is pretty significantly bigger or the amount of races is significantly smaller."

Piastri sits 104 points ahead of reigning champion Max Verstappen who said he had "no idea" what his and Red Bull's goal for the weekend might be.

"Historically, this track has not really been that good to us because of the layout of the track with the low-speed corners also in it," said Verstappen, who has won the last four world titles.

"I just hope that tomorrow we can start a bit in a better window than we have done maybe in some races this year and then just see how competitive we are.

"It's super clear that McLaren is on another level. But behind that, it's all super close and it just depends also a bit on if you find the right setup for the weekend."

R.AbuNasser--SF-PST