MONZA, Italy (AP) — Lando Norris says McLaren’s dominance of Formula 1 this season is proving to be a curse as well as a blessing.

Norris saw his title chances diminish dramatically at last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix as his McLaren broke down while he was chasing teammate Oscar Piastri, who went on to win the race and extend his lead in the drivers’ championship.

The second-place Norris went from trailing Piastri by just nine points to 34 and the pressure is now on the 25-year-old British driver to be perfect for the remaining nine races, starting with this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

“I can still win the championship without anything happening (to Oscar), and that’s the way I wish to do it,” Norris said Thursday. “It would certainly make my life easier if there was just more drivers in between every now and then.

“The thing is, we’re so dominant as a team, that almost makes my life harder. That’s really the most frustrating part of it all but otherwise it’s still to an effect, may the best man win, may the best driver win.”

Piastri’s advantage will be tough to overcome, but McLaren’s lead in the constructors’ championship is all but insurmountable. The British team has a whopping 584 points, 324 more than second-place Ferrari.

However, a rare car failure saw smoke pouring from the back of Norris’ car and he ended the race at Zandvoort standing behind a barrier at the side of the track.

It was the second time this season Norris had failed to finish, after colliding with Piastri at the Canadian Grand Prix in June.

“We look back on 60-something races without a technical failure, without any issues. I think that’s a record for ourselves, I don’t know if it’s a record for Formula 1, but it’s something we’re pretty proud about,” Norris said. “For that to happen now, that’s just being unlucky.

“It’s life. You just can’t do anything about it. I can only look ahead to the next races and try to do more than I’ve ever done. That’s it, 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.”

It would be a first title for either Norris or Piastri and the Australian driver knows from experience that everything could change again.

“I’ve had one of my own championships, I had a much bigger gap than this and had it pretty much erased before the final round,” Piastri said. “So I’ve got personal experience of this not being a comfortable gap.

“But yeah, it’s still far too early to be calculating and settling for positions that aren’t first … that won’t change until the gap is pretty significantly bigger or the amount of races is significantly smaller.”

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