McLaren have a good day in Azerbaijan as Max Verstappen bemoans ‘lack of bite’

Lando Norris recovered from his qualifying disaster by pulling off a late overtake on Max Verstappen to further cut the title lead as Oscar Piastri won a pulsating Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The British driver started from 15th as Verstappen lined up sixth but Norris pulled off a superb drive to make his tyres last before easing past the struggling Dutchman with three laps to go.

Norris finished fourth and took three points out of Verstappen’s title lead, which now stands at 59 points with seven races remaining.

Piastri claimed his second Formula One victory after passing pole-sitter Charles Leclerc with a thrilling move and holding off the Ferrari driver for the rest of the race to take the win.

Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz suffered a dramatic late crash as McLaren took over the lead of the constructors’ championship.

Norris arrived in the Land of Fire bidding to turn up the heat on championship leader Verstappen, having taken 16 points out of the three-time world champion’s title lead across the last two races.

The 24-year-old’s championship hopes suffered a huge blow when he qualified only 17th. He was promoted to 15th on the grid after Pierre Gasly was disqualified from qualifying and Lewis Hamilton started from the pit lane after being given a new engine.

Leclerc eased away off the line to keep his lead on the short run to turn one while Verstappen, who started sixth, made up a place by passing George Russell on the opening lap.

Norris started on the hard tyre and made up three places on lap one and was soon making more progress.

At the front, Leclerc shrugged off the attentions of Piastri to open up a commanding lead.

Verstappen was one several cars to pit early, having complained of a “lack of bite” from his Red Bull, with Norris suddenly finding himself in fifth.

On a weekend dominated by talk of McLaren’s decision to use Piastri to help Norris for the rest of the season, McLaren were soon on the radio asking Norris to hold Sergio Perez up to aid the Australian.

He succeeded in doing so as Piastri emerged ahead of the Mexican and also slashed Leclerc’s lead by performing the undercut at the pit stops.

Piastri was rapidly on Leclerc’s gearbox and on lap 20 slung his McLaren up the inside at turn one, catching the Monegasque out and roaring into the lead.

Leclerc kept himself in DRS range of the Australian lap after lap, with Perez hanging on as well.

The Ferrari came close to a move on lap 29 as Piastri had to defend hard and again on lap 33 as the McLaren man swept across the track out of turn one to keep Leclerc at bay.

In the closing stages it became a four-way scrap for the lead as Sainz joined the party.

Leclerc soon had to defend from Perez and Sainz pushed his way past the Mexican before the pair came together on the penultimate lap, suffering a huge crash as both were eliminated.

That handed George Russell an unexpected podium, as team-mate Hamilton came home in ninth and Bearman claimed a point for Haas.

The title challenge between Norris and Verstappen played out on track as the Briton, yet to pit, defended fiercely to keep the Dutchman at bay.

Verstappen complained of a brake issue as he cut the corner and was unable to get through as Norris was aided by DRS from Alex Albon ahead of him.

“I have no rear grip,” he said over the team radio. Things soon went further downhill for the three-time world champion as George Russell eased past him on lap 34.

Norris made his first stop with 14 laps remaining and emerged seventh, 14 seconds behind Verstappen on track.

But he ate into the advantage and made the overtake with ease to take another bite out of Verstappen’s lead.

Piastri said afterwards: “It was hard work but I think that definitely goes down as one of the better races of my career.

“Results like this were not possible 12 months ago for myself. A massive team effort and excited to see what the future holds for myself.”