Lando Norris’ ‘tough’ admission after being forced into support driver role to Piastri

Lando Norris has admitted it was “tough” to be asked to help McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri to victory during last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Having been criticised for failing to enforce team orders at the Italian Grand Prix earlier this month, McLaren arrived in Baku signalling a willingness to support Norris ‘s title challenge against Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.

Lando Norris ‘happy’ to help Oscar Piastri to Baku victory

However, the team’s plans were turned upside down in qualifying when Norris fell at the first stage of qualifying, leaving him a lowly 15th on the grid.

Norris recovered to fourth place on race day as Piastri collected his second career victory, following his maiden triumph in Hungary in July.

Norris was asked at one stage to hold up Sergio Perez to stop the Red Bull driver overcutting Piastri during the pit stops, with the Australian then freed to attack Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for the lead.

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Speaking to Sky F1 after the race, Norris said he was satisfied to play “a small part” in Piastri’s success even though he found himself stuck behind Alex Albon’s Williams for a large proportion of the race.

He said: “It’s tough.

“At that point, I was still kind of stuck behind Alex, so I couldn’t do a lot.

“I didn’t slow down, I just saved my tyres a little bit more. I just had to cool them, they were overheating a little bit.

“It allowed Oscar to stay ahead and potentially get him the win today, so I’m happy I helped him out.

“I played a small part in that and, for us as a team, that’s what we’re here to do.

“I don’t think it cost me, it’s always impossible to know. I got stuck behind Alex for 15 laps more after that, so I didn’t think that changed the outcome, but it changed the outcome for Oscar and that was the most important thing.

“That was my job out there today, to help Oscar out, and to come away with a first and a fourth was perfect.”

Baku saw McLaren take the lead of the Constructors’ standings for the first time since the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, with the team leading Red Bull by 20 points with seven races remaining.

With Ferrari a further 31 points back, Norris believes the Scuderia are McLaren’s biggest threat as things stand with Charles Leclerc taking a victory and two pole positions from the last two races.

He said “Coming into these three races we’ve got now – Monza, here and Singapore – we knew our main contenders would be Ferrari.

“They’ve been our strongest competition lately. Between Carlos [Sainz] and Charles, they’ve been two guys who’ve been performing well and putting us under pressure.

“Especially with Charles’ pole positions, and his race win last weekend, they give him a good boost.

“They’re performing well and they seem like our closest competition at the minute, so from a Constructors’ [Championship] point of view we’re probably more worried about Ferrari than we are about Red Bull.

“We know Ferrari are going to be good next weekend, but like Oscar and I showed today, I think our car works well everywhere.

“We’re good in the high speed, we’re good in the medium speed.

“I think we feel like we struggle more in the slow speed, like here in Baku, but clearly we still had the quickest car today and that’s a nice surprise for us and a good confidence booster.”

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