Chaos in Baku. Six red flags. And then Max Verstappen banged himself on pole, which is an act filed under ‘G’ for genius.
Lando Norris, alas, cannot say the same. His qualifying report for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, at a time when opportunity knocked, is hidden away under ‘F’ for flunked it.
Here was a tale by the Caspian Sea of two different reactions to the same situation.
In the wet after a bizarrely stop-start session lasting two hours, Verstappen made his Red Bull stick to the road like glue.
Norris should have been up at the front of the grid with the Dutchman, but instead Williams’s Carlos Sainz qualified second and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson third. Don’t adjust your glasses. It’s true.
Norris’s chance arrived as McLaren team-mate and world championship rival Oscar Piastri thudded into the wall at Turn Three during the closing stages of the pole shootout – a rare mistake by the Australian.
Max Verstappen drove a sensational lap to secure pole position in Baku after a chaotic session
Championship leader Oscar Piastri will start ninth after hitting the wall at turn three
Charles Leclerc crashed his Ferrari into a wall at turn 15 and will start the Grand Prix from 10th
Rain intensified, having been no more than spots beforehand.
Sainz joked he would stage a rain dance, for his name led all the rest at this stage, the Spaniard being one of just three drivers to have set a time.
The rest had one crack each after Piastri’s car was removed.
Norris tiptoed around, 1.122sec behind Verstappen – or a gap as wide as the Mariana Trench.
So, the Briton will start seventh, only two places ahead of Piastri.
This is not how you seize a world championship when you trail by 31 points, with eight races including today’s remaining, and your single adversary is bruised in the wall.
Norris pretended he had not looked a gift horse in the chops. ‘No,’ he said of that theory. ‘Because I still did everything I could.’
At least McLaren’s day was better than Ferrari’s and Lewis Hamilton’s. He was eliminated in Q2. Not only knocked out, but blitzkrieged. The seven-time world champion qualified 12th but was four-tenths off progressing. Worse, he was seven-tenths behind Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, who then crashed out himself.
Lando Norris tried to take advantage and boost his title chances but could only qualify seventh
No wonder Hamilton’s trudge back to the garage was despondently slow. He blamed being stuck on the wrong tyres and offered a mixed verdict.
‘There are lots of positives from this weekend,’ he reasoned. ‘I’ve really felt on it. I honestly thought I was going to be shooting for pole, so it’s a bit of a shock.
‘I’ll take it on the chin and keep trying.’
The leading Brit was George Russell, who was fifth quickest for Mercedes despite fighting a fever that saw him excused his media duties.
A silly mistake ended his pal Alex Albon’s participation early on. The London-born Thai brushed his Williams into the wall turning into the first corner, eliciting the first red flag.
It was one of numerous delays, the second coming when Nico Hulkenberg lost control of his Sauber, again a scratch rather than a hefty crash on the testing Baku City Circuit, where the race will stay until 2030 under a new deal.
Flavio Briatore, who brokered the race coming here for a pile of Azerbaijani Manats, is now running Alpine. He had the hurt of seeing both his men exit in Q2, Pierre Gasly running wide and Franco Colapinto responsible for the third of the Q1 prangs.
When Q2 struck up, another red flag – the fourth – followed as Ollie Bearman tickled the wall on the exit of Turn Three. ‘Sorry, guys,’ the Englishman told the Haas pit wall. ‘Stupid.’ Yes, he can be prone to giddy moments. Still, he is raw, fast and 20 years old.
Yet he is no Verstappen. Who is?
