After a run of success had made Lando Norris catching Max Verstappen for the world championship a feasible target, the British driver was given a stark reminder in qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix of the magnitude of the task that lies ahead. Knocked out in 17th in Baku Norris’s title hopes have taken a mighty blow, the damage done even as his McLaren team were left fuming at the FIA.
Charles Leclerc took pole with an impressive and dominant lap for Ferrari, his fourth in a row at the track and his best chance yet to convert one to his first victory on the streets of the city – but it was behind him where the bigger picture for the season was being hastily redrawn. Verstappen, who leads Norris by 62 points with eight races remaining, looks set to increase his advantage once more. That the Dutchman was only sixth is scant consolation for a disconsolate Norris, who will start in 16th after Esteban Ocon was disqualified from 13th for a breach of fuel flow regulations.
Going into the weekend the talk around McLaren had been dominated by the proposed use of team orders to benefit Norris over his teammate, Oscar Piastri, who was second in Baku, but that was rendered moot in the blink of an eye on Saturday.
That fortune can turn in a moment in F1 was aptly demonstrated on Norris’s final lap in Q3. The team had taken a chance in not running new tyres for Norris in Q1, a questionable decision defended by the team principal, Andrea Stella, but with the track gaining grip at a tremendous rate it left Norris vulnerable as lap times improved and made his final lap vital.
On that crucial tour he was on course to advance until he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and victim of what McLaren were convinced was the wrong decision.
Esteban Ocon had hit a wall and was going slowly to complete a lap as Norris exited turn 15 with the Frenchman crawling round 16. Norris was shown a short yellow on the trackside monitor and backed off but it was there for only a brief moment as the more appropriate white flag of a car going slowly was then shown.
Norris confirmed he had lifted when he saw the warning. “Everyone did their second laps, and I didn’t. Just unlucky, that’s all,” he said.
Stella was less sanguine, describing it as “extremely costly” and that his team had taken it up with the FIA. “There was a situation which ideally and by the regulations shouldn’t have happened, we paid the price,” he said. “It [the flag] was displayed last minute, we checked in our tools and it was a yellow, so we are in conversation with the FIA as to why that happened because the yellow flag is not necessary when it is just a slow car offline.”
Any conversation will not change the result nor the challenge facing Norris on Sunday. While a win for Verstappen is unlikely, he can at least expect assistance from his Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez, who finished in front of him in fourth.
Red Bull expect Pérez to support Verstappen’s title charge and he should act accordingly if he is able to help his teammate up the order. McLaren in turn require Piastri to play a part in denying the world champion as many points as possible.
At the front, however, Leclerc was imperious and almost certainly untouchable regardless of Norris’s travails. His final run on a circuit he admits he adores driving was a sight to behold, hustling what has been a recalcitrant Ferrari through the streets of Baku with a wonderful touch.
Three-tenths up on Piastri and teammate Carlos Sainz in third, Leclerc is in position to make it back-to-back wins as Norris launches a challenge from the back of the grid that is vital to his title fight.
George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were in fifth and seventh for Mercedes. Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin, while Franco Colapinto was an impressive ninth for Williams.
Alex Albon was hugely unlucky in having his Williams sent out with a cooling fan still attached to his car, a serious operational failure by the team counting as an unsafe release, which is under investigation. He pulled over and removed the fan himself, to continue to try to put in a final lap, but did not have time to start it and finished in 10th.
Britain’s Oliver Bearman once more demonstrated great composure to take 11th place for Haas in front of his teammate Nico Hülkenberg, who was 14th. The 19-year-old will make his F1 full season debut with the team next year but was standing in for Kevin Magnussen, who has a one-race ban after reaching the maximum penalty point allocation in Monza. Bearman made his F1 debut in Saudi Arabia this season when he stood in at Ferrari for Carlos Sainz and took seventh place.
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Yuki Tsunoda was 12th for RB, after his penalty Alpine’s Gasly will be relegated to the back of the grid from 13th and Lance Stroll 15th for Aston Martin.
Daniel Ricciardo was in 16th for RB, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in 18th and 19th for Sauber. Esteban Ocon was in 20th for Alpine.
