Azerbaijan GP 2024: ‘McLaren’s constructors’ lead over Red Bull seismic’

Piastri and Norris finished first and fourth in Baku at the end of a race they had started second and 15th.

Piastri’s win was brilliant. Norris’ rise just as remarkable. The fact he caught, passed and beat Verstappen, despite starting the race nine places behind the Red Bull driver, surprised both Norris and Stella.

Why did Norris start so low down? He was unlucky to catch a brief yellow flag in the first part of qualifying.

McLaren felt the yellows – for the slow-moving Alpine of Esteban Ocon as he came on to the pit straight – were not even necessary. But they forced him to abort his lap, and he was knocked out after the first session. Norris qualified 17th, but gained back two places following penalties for Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

Norris was still brooding about it after the race.

“It was out of my control,” Norris said. “It was something that was unfair, and cost me a good amount of points in the championship today and ruined my weekend.

“It’s disappointing, especially because of how good the car was today. I’m the guy thinking about what could have been, not what we did today necessarily.

“The car was flying. It was so good it almost made me more annoyed about yesterday and how silly that yellow flag was.”

That’s the glass half-empty side of Norris. The glass half-full version was also on show.

That was when he considered how he had not only held Verstappen at bay on older tyres for a number of laps after the Red Bull driver’s pit stop, but actually pulled away once Alex Albon’s Williams had pitted out of Norris’ way.

Then, after Norris’ own later stop, he clawed back 15 seconds on Verstappen and passed him for what at the time was sixth place, but became fourth when Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez crashed while disputing third place with two laps to go.

“To create a gap ahead of him and to box and to still overtake him,” Norris said. “I wasn’t expecting to do to such a thing.”

Stella said: “I would never have said we would beat Verstappen on track.”

For Norris, better even than that was the way he had helped Piastri to victory.

Perez, who ran third in the first stint, had pitted for fresh tyres before Piastri, and was on course to be ahead after the McLaren made its stop.

But Perez had rejoined behind Norris, running a long first stint on a reverse strategy, starting on the hard tyres. And Norris was able to delay the Red Bull just enough to ensure Piastri rejoined the track still in second place behind race leader Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.

“Without Lando’s help, Perez would have pitted ahead of Oscar,” Stella said. “So 50% of Oscar’s victory is shared with Lando. It shows we are approaching racing as a team.”

And it was this, rather than beating Verstappen, that was the highlight of Norris’ day.

Norris said: “The main point was I defended against Checo, allowed him to not get ahead of Oscar and that allowed Oscar to get a win. I did my small part for the team, which I’m really happy for, because it got us P1 in the constructors’. That’s the thing that makes me the happiest.”