Piastri recovered to eighth after starting the 71-lap affair 17th following a painful qualifying.
It continues the Australian’s impressive run of completing every racing lap of the season, with a string of points-paying weekends that now stretches back 22 events.
In Mexico, Piastri made steady progress through the pack, delivering largely what his team expected.
“With Oscar, pretty much he finished where we thought he would finish without being able to overtake anyone easily,” explained Stella.
“It wasn’t easy to overtake. This means that we lost that little time that meant we couldn’t pass the second Haas, which was our realistic target.”
Piastri crossed the line just 1.3s behind seventh-placed Kevin Magnussen in the leading Haas, who in turn was only 3.9s away from Max Verstappen.
“With some more pace, and with some easier overtaking, then this could have been a target,” Stella hypothesised.
“And once again, I would like to remind that Oscar didn’t have the upgraded car, so he did a fantastic job in getting back into the points.
“The championship will go to the wire, and these points are important.”
During the race, Piastri twice passed Franco Colapinto, once either side of his pit stop.
“In the first stint, he was not too slow,” Piastri said.
“I think after I pitted, he had quite a big moment and then defended very hard, which I think cost both of us a lot of time.
“But he can do what he wants, doesn’t have to make my life easy.
“So yeah, it was a bit tougher than I expected to get through, but once we had some clean air the pace was good.”
The same was true for Norris, who ran fourth for much of the opening stint behind Verstappen before coming to life once in free air.
After starting third, Norris battled with Verstappen for second on Lap 9, only to be elbowed off the road twice in quick succession.
That allowed Charles Leclerc to scamper through, while the McLaren driver remained tucked up behind Verstappen – who picked up 20 seconds’ worth of penalties for his antics.
Norris’ pace surprised Stella, who initially believed the squabble with the world championship leader had little impact on the race.
“I thought the Ferraris were faster today, but as we were going through the first stint, actually Lando, as soon as he got clear of Verstappen, showed that he had very competitive pace,” Stella noted.
“And then, in the second stint, actually proved that the pace was as fast as Ferrari.
“So in hindsight, now, when I look at the incidents in the early laps of the race, there’s a little bit of disappointment.
“Without that couple of incidents, I think Lando could have fought for the victory today.”
Norris ran third for much of the race before reeling in Leclerc in the closing stages, pressuring the Monegasque driver into a mistake at the final corner.
That saw Norris take second, though he could do nothing to catch Carlos Sainz ahead.
“I’m happy with P2,” Norris confessed.
“Normally I wouldn’t be, but I think on a day like today, I was happy.
“Things looked like they could go a lot worse, especially the first part of the race.
“So to keep the car in one piece and to kind of keep the race alive was important. And the pace was extremely strong.
“A shame that we lost so much in the first stint with some of the battles that we had.
“If I was a bit more in there and in the mix then I think our opportunities could have been even better.
“But Carlos drove the first stint very well and the gap was already 15 seconds, so I had a lot to try and catch up.
“But it was a good race. The car was strong. Our pace, especially in the second stint, not really the first, but the second stint was very, very good and kind of gave me a bit of hope again that we were competitive comparing to the Ferraris.”
McLaren continues to lead the constructors’ championship though its margin has reduced to 29 points, with Ferrari now second in that competition.
In the drivers’ championship, Norris trails Verstappen by 47 points with four races remaining.
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