Lando Norris missed a significant opportunity to close the gap with teammate Oscar Piastri in the World Championship race during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Despite the early exit of the championship leader, the Briton only managed to finish in sixth place, earning six points. “It’s questionable whether he’ll get such a golden opportunity again,” observers note.
Oscar Piastri was the biggest loser of the day in Baku. Just like the day before in the qualifiers, the Australian crashed hard, this time in the first round after a completely botched start. This gave Lando Norris a great opportunity to significantly reduce his deficit to his teammate in the World Championship. Although his starting position (seventh) was not very favorable, the speed shown by McLaren’s MCL39 in the training sessions offered some hope.
Unlike George Russell, Max Verstappen, and Yuki Tsunoda – all of whom started ahead of him – Norris opted for the medium tires to start with. This did not give him the hoped-for advantage at the start. Norris managed to keep the tires ‘alive’ for almost forty laps, when he tried to overtake Tsunoda from fourth place via an undercut in the pit lane. A poor tire change prevented this. Just like two weeks earlier in Monza, it went disastrously wrong.
The tire stop lasted over four seconds, causing Norris to rejoin the track in eighth place. He did manage to gain two places later on, but he couldn’t get past Tsunoda in the final stages. As a result, McLaren’s constructor’s title celebration was postponed and the Briton ended up with ‘only’ six points from the Azerbaijan adventure. A meager score, Piastri’s lead still stands at 25 points. “It’s questionable whether Lando will get such a golden opportunity again,” judges SkySports’ analyst Karun Chandhok.
