The British racer will become world champion for the first time if he outscores McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull's Max Verstappen by two points at the Qatar Grand Prix this weekend but is not overthinking the situation heading into the penultimate round of the season.

Norris said: "I feel as relaxed as I was before when I was 35 points behind the lead and I feel the same when I'm 24 points ahead. That's my strength for now.

"How I am now feels the same as before Mexico when I wasn't leading. It feels the same as Austin when I still felt good in the car, but Max still won the race.

"I really don't feel any different in the car from before I was leading to now when I'm leading."

Norris would be 30 points ahead at the top of the championship had McLaren not been disqualified from last weekend's race in Las Vegas as their skid blocks were found to have worn excessively, but insisted that the disappointment had been easy to get over.

He said: "Of course it hurts. There's a lot of effort that goes into every weekend from everyone, including myself. All that effort just felt like it disappeared very quickly.

"But it's the same feeling for all of us. The mechanics, the engineers, myself, everyone in McLaren, feels let down by what we had as a result. And we're all disappointed.

"But actually I found it quite easy just to move on and have a few days off and come to this weekend. Yeah, disappointed, of course. But I was fine otherwise."

Norris explained that McLaren will treat this weekend's race at Lusail like any other, despite the prize that is at stake.

The 11-time Grand Prix winner said: "We treat it very normally. There's no point trying to treat it any differently because we've been doing a good job and I'm very happy with the job we've all been doing.

"We know what areas we need to do better, we know what things we need to improve on this year, all the standard stuff. I really try and not treat it any differently because there's no point. Nothing needs to be treated any differently."