Norris surprised to finish ahead of Verstappen in Azerbaijan

Lando Norris says he was surprised to finish ahead of title rival Max Verstappen from 15th in Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix and was happy to play “a small part” in team-mate Oscar Piastri’s win.

Norris only qualified 17th after seeing his final Q1 lap ruined by an unfortunately timed yellow flag, which eventually forced him to back off rather than complete the lap.

He moved up to 15th thanks to a pitlane start for Lewis Hamilton and disqualification for Pierre Gasly, but was still bracing for an afternoon of damage limitation around the streets of Baku.

But on the alternate strategy starting on hard tyres, Norris made a good getaway and was soon in the top 10 behind fellow hard-tyre runner Alex Albon, who held up some of the medium runners after their early pitstop including Max Verstappen and George Russell.

Albon’s pitstop gave Norris free air for a handful of laps before making his own stop on lap 38, and while Russell got past Verstappen and drove to the podium, Norris clawed back his pitstop-sized deficit to a struggling Verstappen to snatch fourth away from the Dutchman.

“I don’t think we could have asked for a lot more today,” Norris said after the extra point for the fastest lap helped reduce his title race deficit from 62 to 59 points.

“We would have been happy with eighth, as we just expected the top four teams to go with me being the eighth car.

“A good start, good strategy. I mean, I would have loved to have got past Alex a bit earlier. He made my life tough. As soon as Alex boxed, I think my pace was the best on track, even on the hards from the beginning of the race, and I managed to create a good gap and just unlock all the potential that the car had.

“The car was flying, which almost made me more annoyed about yesterday and how silly that yellow flag was.”

When asked if he was surprised to finish in front of Verstappen after first defending from the Dutchman before his stop and then having to make up a pitstop worth of laptime, he said: “A little bit surprised.

“When you start 15th, you don’t really expect to beat him. I was about 20-22 seconds behind on real terms where they were. But to create a gap ahead of him and then to box and to still overtake him. I wasn’t expecting that probably.”

Before being freed of Albon’s Williams, Norris played a helpful part in securing team-mate Piastri’s win.

The Australian was left vulnerable to an undercut by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez by not…