Lando Norris hails his ‘flying’ McLaren and says he’s ‘surprised’ he overtook Max Verstappen as Brit closes gap on title rival after storming from 15th to finish fourth at Azerbaijan GP

Lando Norris said he was ‘flying’ after taking another nibble into Max Verstappen‘s world championship lead by finishing ahead of him in Baku.

The British driver’s fourth place, to Verstappen’s fifth, also lifted McLaren to the top of the constructors’ standings by 20 points.

There was much delight at the British-based team’s paddock because of that landmark achievement, and the fact their other driver, Oscar Piastri, pulled off a dazzling win.

Norris, though never in contention for victory, was delighted with his day, after starting 15th but still managing to trim his deficit to Verstappen to 59 points.

Lando Norris will be delighted to have cut the deficit in the drivers’ championship after Baku

A maximum of 206 more points are on offer between now and the closing race in Abu Dhabi on December 8. ‘I don’t think we could have asked for a lot more today,’ said Norris. ‘It was a good start, good strategy and a great result to be ahead of Max.

‘The car was flying. Because it was so good it makes memore annoyed about yesterday and how silly that yellow flag was (that delayed him in qualifying).

‘We would have been happy with eighth. I am a little bit surprised to have beaten Max seeing as where I started.

‘I was about 20 to 22 seconds behind in real terms after Max pitted. To create a gap ahead of him and box myself and then overtake him was not expected.’

Norris travelled from Monaco to Baku with Verstappen, showing their friendship is not impacted by their title fight. They kept it clean on the track, but Norris both defended and then passed the world champion, who complained his car, though essentially improved since Monza, lacked bite.

The Dutchman said: ‘We paid a price with the changes we made to the car going into qualifying. We made it worse.

‘It bounced a lot. The wheels were coming off the ground at the low-speed corners, so when you don’t have contact with the tarmac it isn’t ideal.’ 

The Formula One circus now travels to Singapore on charter flights ahead of next week’s race under lights in the city state.

Norris fourth-placed finish in Azerbaijan cut the championship deficit by three points

Max Verstappen has called for further optimisations in order to defend his championship

So, what does Verstappen expect there?

‘We need to optimise what we did here, but I don’t think it will be our best track.’

Regarding the battle for the drivers’ title, he added: ‘If we do a better job ourselves, McLaren need to have a perfect job until the end of the year.’