‘Norris misses opportunity in chaotic qualifying’

Following a frantic qualifying session that spanned twice the length of the Grand Prix of Azerbaijan, title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will begin the competition in seventh and ninth place.

The Baku street circuit is renowned for producing incident because of how frequently mistakes are made because of the walls that surround it with long straight straights and tight, right-angled corners.

This time, difficult conditions created a challenge that led to six drivers – more than a quarter of the field – crashing during qualifying. A Formula 1 record was set for the six red flags that followed.

Add in wind, a bit of tyre uncertainty, a little bit of rain, and this kind of cold conditions, and things start to happen.

Stuff very much happened.

When Williams driver Alex Albon struck the inside wall at Turn One early in the first session, the collision that would have caused the series of accidents.

Albon called the change in grip between that lap and his first one “a bit of a rookie mistake” and said it was “a bit of a rookie mistake.”

But that difference in grip was caused by the wind. The car gains more grip when the wind is blowing head-on, as the aerodynamics improve.

The car then slides less and turns more than expected when turning in at the same time, leading to the accident.

It doesn’t make the error forgiveable, but it does explain how something that all racing drivers hate – hitting the inside wall – can happen.

Driving on a track with such a small margin of error in such unpredictable circumstances was described by Norris as “quite unbelievable.”

The next two crashes involved Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, who both hit the wall at Turn Four – the Argentine despite the fact that his team-mate Pierre Gasly was already in the escape road. Because the flags were white rather than yellow, which indicated that Gasly was departing from the track at the time, Colapinto was able to get away with that one.

Although these appeared to be moving too quickly, Norris remarked, “Turn Four, where Colapinto went off, a lot of people locked up. It feels like one of the worst corners I’ve ever driven in my life. simply because the tailwind travels at 50 km/h or something.

It’s possible that you’ll feel more like, “Oh, I can go a little faster,” when the next lap is 10. You go quicker the next lap, and you’re in the wall. It’s a lot of work.

At the start of the second session, Haas driver Oliver Bearman attempted to travel too quickly through Turn Two before colliding with the wall with his right rear wheel after an oversteer.

And then Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Piastri both went into their corners too fast in Q3 – Leclerc at Turn 15, where the downhill braking zone from high speed is renowned for its difficulty, then Piastri at Turn Three.

I didn’t feel like doing that much differently, Piastri said. However, you are aware that a single drop can make a big difference. So, yeah, obviously I’m disappointed with how I performed.

Piastri’s accident seemed to leave an open goal for Norris, as it meant the Australian would be starting ninth, and at that point the Briton was in the running for pole.

With only eight races left, Norris is ahead of Piastri by 31 points in the championship.

Thus, Norris had a chance to start on a plate following Piastri’s first major error of the year. But it was one he did not take.

His final turn produced a number of minor errors before falling off at Turn 15 and striking the wall. He did it side-on, so he could continue, but he finished seventh, barely a second ahead of Max Verstappen’s pole time, and he was able to do so without a second.

Asked if he saw it as a missed opportunity, Norris said: “No, because I still did everything I could”.

Norris claimed that because he had chosen to leave first, he felt he had the worst of the situation. He did it because he had a good reason to do it: he would be the first driver to pass a lap time if another incident occurred.

“I went out first and it was just the wrong decision to make in the end”, Norris said. You wouldn’t be asking me this question if everyone else got a yellow (flag) behind because someone else went off behind me. Sometimes it contours your path, but occasionally not.

” We thought we took a better option. If it hadn’t split, I believe it would have. Before the final run, it just started to spit once more. And then going out first is just the incorrect thing.

If Norris was looking on the bright side, the same was not true at Ferrari, who had another difficult session in an increasingly difficult season.

They had an idea for Baku. Leclerc had previously held pole positions at this track for the previous four races, and some of them came in vehicles that were even more uncompetitive than the Ferrari of the year.

But although Leclerc and Hamilton looked competitive through practice, they were not when it mattered.

And they didn’t even come to terms about what went wrong: Hamilton felt he had suffered from not using the mediums in the second session, Leclerc felt they had suffered from their choice to run medium tires.

“Overall, for me, it has been a very challenging weekend. Normally Baku is a track I really enjoy driving but it has been a bit of a pain for me, struggling with the balance of the car”, Leclerc said.

“The car improved significantly after qualifying, but we were unable to make the medium work any longer,” said I. We began to struggle to bring the medium to room temperature, and my mistake led to much expense.

Hamilton, by contrast, was feeling good in the car and said he “thought I might get pole today”.

Ferrari’s tyre design, however, had a negative impact. He only had two sets of medium tyres on Friday, compared to the three for the majority of other drivers, which he had used.

Ferrari were saving them for Q3 – but he didn’t get there because he wasn’t fast enough on the softs to make it through Q2.

He claimed that in Q2, “we should have used a medium.” We knew it would be quicker, and I can’t explain why we didn’t use it, but we will take it internally, according to everyone else.

What the McLarens can do from their modest starting positions will be the main focus of the grand prix.

The team can clinch their second consecutive constructors ‘ championship on Sunday. In order to do this, they must outscored Ferrari by nine points and not by Mercedes by 12 points and Red Bull by 33.

That appeared to be a slam dunk at the start of the weekend. Not so much any more, even if there is no doubt they will win it in the end.

Verstappen is likely to rule the front. In the Williams, Carlos Sainz moves up to third place, followed by Kimi Antonelli and George Russell’s Mercedes, which has been ill all weekend. Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Yuki Tsunoda lines up sixth.

Verstappen would likely be too far ahead to challenge Norris and Piastri by the time they even can move up the front with a number of slower cars between them.

The McLarens and Ferraris are attempting to advance in an eventful race due to the mixed-up grid.

And at McLaren, Verstappen’s return to form in Monza, followed by pole this weekend, has increased their concern about his threat on a championship basis.

Even so, the four-time champion would need to close with an average of 12 points per race by the end of the season, despite the fact that he is 96 points behind Piastri.

After qualifying, Andrea Stella, the McLaren team principal, was questioned about his opinion of Verstappen.

He said:” A firm yes. Can you use capital letters? because it was capitalized.

“We don’t have to forget that, first of all, it’s Max Verstappen. In a fast car, the car has won the title for the past four years.

There are competition-related events where McLaren might not have any advantage.

“And also Lando and Oscar, they are always there, so they will not necessarily be maximising the points available. Sometimes Lando will receive a little more credit than Oscar, so they may take some of their points back from each other.