Lando Norris finished a respectable fourth after starting in P15 on the grid at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Norris managed to overtake his championship rival Max Verstappen on the track and got the fastest lap to reduce the Dutchman’s lead by 3 points at the top.
Norris has outscored Verstappen by 19 points over the last three races, but he still faces a 59-point deficit with seven races remaining to secure the championship in Abu Dhabi.
With the next race due to occur in Singapore, Verstappen will again have his work cut down at a circuit where the defending champion has yet to win a race in his career. Norris on the other hand, will be hopeful to put his qualifying disappointment at Baku behind him and return to the top step of the podium at Marina Bay.
“I don’t think we could have asked for a lot more today,” Norris said after the race in Baku on Sunday.
Despite the recent struggles with his RB20, Verstappen remains confident of his championship lead and stated that Norris needs a ‘perfect’ end to the season to win the championship. The wins for the likes of Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc have further complicated the driver’s championship and Norris will want to finish ahead of his teammate and the Ferraris to give himself a genuine chance of lifting the championship.
McLaren also took the Constructor’s lead from Red Bull after Baku and now leads the championship by 20 points. The Papayas will be confident to remain at the top until the end of the season and with Norris and Piastri in the form of their lives, they are expected to win their first Constructor’s title since 1998.
“But today already showed with Checo [Perez], when he was a bit happier and the car was performing a bit better, we are in that fight. OK, we didn’t win but we were in that fight with Checo. So I think from now on we can be in that fight if we keep improving the car step-by-step.” Verstappen said.
“Of course, it’s never nice to see that [Red Bull lose the lead in the standings]. It didn’t help what happened with Checo and Carlos. I’m sure that we can do better. The fight is not over yet. We’ll try to get that back.” he added.
Is Oscar Piastri’s brilliance hurting Norris’ title ambitions?
McLaren’s ambitions of doing a driver’s and constructor’s double are hugely influenced by Oscar Piastri. The Australian helped the Papayas to overtake Red Bull in the constructor’s championship but at the same time, he is consistently taking points off his teammate. Team boss Andrea Stella recently stated that McLaren will prioritize Norris for his championship ambitions but at Baku, it was Norris who ended up playing a key role in helping Piastri win.
Piastri has been more consistent than Norris in recent races, showing notable improvement in tire management. Additionally, he’s making fewer errors in critical moments and is willing to take risks on the race day which comes with huge rewards for the 23-year-old.
Baku was the fourth time in five races that Piastri crossed the finish line ahead of Norris and with the Britt running out of races to fight Verstappen for the championship, he would want Piastri to work as a wingman to dethrone the Dutchman.
Read More: How the Late Perez-Sainz Crash Turned the Tables for Oscar Piastri
Mohd Faisal Hakak is a sports author from Kashmir. He likes to keep tabs on the sporting world with a keen interest in football, motorsports, NBA, and other marquee sports. He is a science graduate from Islamia College Srinagar.
