The F1 championship could have been swung wide open after Oscar Piastri crashed out on the opening lap in Azerbaijan. This gave Lando Norris a chance to take a sizeable chunk of points out of his title rival. However, mistakes from both Norris and McLaren meant he only closed the gap by six points.
The Brit started the race in P7 after a disappointing qualifying session, and that is where he finished. The McLaren racer was stuck in traffic and couldn’t make any headway throughout the race. However, his team principal, Andrea Stella, believes Lando did all he could on the streets of Baku.
Andrea Stella defends Lando Norris after disappointing Azerbaijan GP
The result in Baku will be a bitter pill for Norris to swallow after missing a great chance to pull back points into Pisatri’s lead. The 25-year-old was slow to react to the safety car restart caused by Piastri’s incident, leading to the Brit being passed by Charles Leclerc. Norris then had a slow pitstop, keeping him behind Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson.
With following and overtaking being difficult this year, team boss Andrea Stella claims that no other driver on the grid would have done a better job. Speaking to the media, Stella commented, “I think Lando had a strong race. He raced to the limit of the potential that was available in the car. I think no other driver in Lando’s car could have scored more.
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“We were hoping to have a car that was in condition to overtake, but the reality is that the car wasn’t fast enough to stay close to the car ahead out of last corner, to then be able to overtake down the straight. This means that Lando spent the entire race in traffic, despite feeling that the car had more to offer.
“If anything, the responsibility to try and extract more points may lay more on the team’s side, because with a fast pitstop we could have given Lando the opportunity perhaps to attack Lawson.”
The gap between the two McLaren drivers is now 25 points. That means if Piastri fails to finish again and Norris wins, the title rivals will be joint on points. Piastri has to put this mistake behind him and find the consistency he has shown for most of the season.
Is Oscar Piastri starting to show signs of pressure?
Barring the opening weekend of the season, Piastri has shown high levels of consistency. The Australian has finished on the podium in 14 out of the 17 races completed so far this season. However, was the race around the streets of Baku the first sign of pressure on young shoulders?
Norris has overall had a better European leg than his title rival, not including his mechanical DNF in Zandvoort. The gap had been closing until the Dutch GP, but even after, Norris bounced back to finish higher in Monza.
Andrea Stella Shields Oscar Piastri After Baku GP Disaster With Michael Schumacher Reference
Going into Azerbaijan with just a 31-point lead isn’t a big gap, and with a championship on the line, Piastri is showing signs of pressure. The 24-year-old first crashed in qualifying, bringing out the red flag and making sure he started no higher than P9. In his eagerness to challenge Norris, he jumped the start and then kicked into anti-stall.
This made the Aussie fall to the back of the field. In desperation to make a move quickly, Oscar locked up in turn 8, and his race was over. The impact wasn’t too bad as Norris failed to capitalise. However, he needs to regain his composure, or he could throw his championship lead away.
