Could this be the moment Norris lost the World title to Piastri?

Qualifying in Azerbaijan, marked by no fewer than six red flags, handed Lando Norris a golden opportunity to start well ahead of his teammate and significantly reduce the points deficit.

However, the Briton failed to make the most of it. His mistake at the end of Q3 left him only in P7, just two places ahead of his teammate who will line up P9. So where exactly did Norris go wrong, and what was his real potential?

Norris fails to seize the opportunity once again

After the highly unfortunate Dutch Grand Prix, where Norris left empty-handed due to a DNF caused by mechanical failure, the gap between him and Oscar Piastri increased noticeably for the first time this season.

But this weekend in Azerbaijan, midway through Q3, the Briton was gifted a huge chance.

Piastri had crashed out along with several others, leaving him only in P9 – a starting position from which, on a circuit like Baku, it is extremely difficult to climb to the podium, let alone fight for victory.

With just over three minutes left on the clock, Norris had one last chance at a flying lap – one that would have had to beat Sainz’s benchmark if he wanted pole position. Judging from practice times earlier in the weekend, Lando genuinely looked like the best candidate to take it.

Lando Norris v Oscar Piastri: F1 2025 head-to-head stats

? F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

? F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

McLaren released Norris first onto the track, minimising the risk of worsening weather conditions.

From the opening corners, the confidence in Norris’s driving was clear – he brushed the walls and used every centimetre available. In the data below, you can see the difference in speed between his lap and Sainz’s through Turn 1.

After the first sector, Norris held an advantage of more than three tenths. But at the very start of the middle sector, things began to go wrong – in T6, Norris lost rear grip, oversteered, and had to correct with the opposite lock. Telemetry shows that was the exact point that he lost nearly all the advantage he had gained.

Through the castle section the gap remained stable, the delta hovering around zero.

But when Norris needed to rebuild the momentum from his first sector, he made a crucial error that cost him pole. At T15 he clipped the wall with his front-right wheel, and was fortunate that his lap didn’t end there and then. His entry speed was simply too high and the front tyres unable to hold grip.

The data shows that in this one corner alone, Norris lost half a second. It also reveals that he needed to lift off the throttle significantly to regain control of the car.

His total loss in the second sector was over 0.8 seconds compared to Sainz – an enormous margin considering it came from just a single sector.

In the end, Lando Norris finished more than six tenths down on Sainz, which placed him only seventh, as the drivers completing laps after him managed to go quicker.

Among them, aside from Sainz, were Liam Lawson, Kimi Antonelli, and Yuki Tsunoda. For a driver fighting for the World Championship, it is simply unacceptable to be beaten by less experienced drivers in objectively slower cars.

If we compare all drivers who reached Q3, Norris was unfortunately the one who deteriorated most between his best lap in Q2 and his final run. Yet again this season, Lando Norris failed to deliver when it mattered most.

The driver who improved the most? Max Verstappen – hardly a surprise.

How could this affect the Drivers’ Championship?

The current gap between the two McLaren teammates stands at 31 points. Had Lando claimed pole, which would have made his route to victory on Sunday far easier, that gap would almost certainly have been slashed. Enough, at least, to offset the bad luck he suffered in the Netherlands and add a bit of extra spice to the title fight.

But with just two grid positions separating them, and those being P7 and P9, the advantage is minimal – in fact, Sunday could well see Oscar increase his lead despite his costly crash in qualifying.

The main question now is whether Norris will have another opportunity as good as this one for the remainder of the season. We already know how consistent Piastri has been so far this season. Apart from his mistake in Austria, this is only his second major error this year.

Even so, there are still plenty of races left.

With Azerbaijan marking the start of the final third of the season, the last chance for Norris to mount a challenge has not yet vanished. But if he truly wants to fight for the title, he must ensure this was his final wasted opportunity.

Read next: Winners and losers from the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying