Norris certainly not out of title fight - Piastri

McLaren won the constructors' championship last season but have not had a drivers' world champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008

Italian Grand Prix

Venue: Monza Dates: 5-7 September Race start: 14:00 BST on Sunday

Coverage: Live commentary of practice and qualifying on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and Sports Extra 2 with race on BBC Radio 5 Live; live text updates on BBC Sport website and app

Oscar Piastri says his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris is "certainly not out of the fight" for the title.

Norris fell to 34 points behind Piastri after his engine failed while he was running in second place to the Australian at the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday.

The gap is big enough that Norris would have to win the next five races in a row, with Piastri second in all of them, to retake the championship lead.

Piastri said: "It's a bit more difficult now, but I don't expect much to change. I think we'll race each other the same way. I think the amount of risk taking will be the same.

"We're both trying to be as fast as we can. It's not like we've been holding anything back from that side of things. So I don't expect anything to change."

This weekend's Italian Grand Prix is the final European race of the season with nine rounds remaining.

Piastri, 24, said he had personal experience in one of the junior categories "of this not being a comfortable gap".

He said: "I've had a much bigger gap than this and had it pretty much erased before the final round. It's still far too early to be kind of calculating and settling for positions that aren't first.

"So for me, the approach is still exactly the same. And yeah, that won't change until the gap is pretty significantly bigger or the amount of races is significantly smaller."

The McLaren drivers have won 12 of the 15 races so far this year and Piastri said in an interview with 5 Live Breakfast's Rick Edwards that he had not expected such a level of dominance.

"The gap to everyone else and the amount of wins, that's probably the most surprising one," Piastri said, "because I've won, what, five more races this year than I had my whole career.

"Admittedly, it's been a short career, but to have that many wins and to have a car and a team that's been so dominant, that's been the biggest surprise."

He said the McLaren had been "a joy to drive" and that "in some ways, not having to worry about too many other teams is nice".

Norris, however, said he wished now that there were other teams able to get into the fight for wins.

"We're so dominant as a team, that almost makes my life harder, so that's really the most frustrating part of it all," the Briton said. "Otherwise, yeah, it's still to an effect 'may the best man win' and 'may the best driver win' and if that's the case at the end of the season, then I'll respect that."

Norris moves on from Zandvoort setback

Lando Norris finished third behind Oscar Piastri and race winner Charles Leclerc at Monza last year

Norris said it had been "surprisingly easy" to put the disappointment of Zandvoort behind him before arriving at Monza.

"It's been one of the things I've been working on a lot away from the track, separate from my driving and just the general stuff," he said.

"There's a change and there's definitely things I've improved on. It doesn't mean that I don't get annoyed and frustrated when I don't do well and I make mistakes and I lose out on pole or don't win races.

"I still get frustrated by those moments and I still get down and whatever, but something I'm much better at now is dealing with it and not letting it affect anything else.

"So it's, yeah, surprisingly easy probably for myself to put it behind and look ahead to this weekend, so that's what I'm excited for."

As for his campaign for the championship, he said that he wanted to try to claw back the deficit without Piastri suffering any misfortune himself.

"I just wish that I can find that last little bit that I can still win the championship without anything happening. That's the way I wish to do it," he added.

"I can't do a lot more because I feel like I'm doing already everything I can, so it's not like this was a trigger and now I can suddenly start doing more.

"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.

"I can't dwell on those moments too much, it's not anyone's direct fault. Even if it was, I just have to take it on the chin and move on, so that's all I'm trying to do now.

"In the end, if he's done a better job, I give credits to him and I say he's done a better job. That's just how I am."