Lando Norris failed to capitalise on his teammate's crash in qualifying in Baku. Photo: RacePictures

Norris: 'People need to stop being so surprised that Red Bull is quick'

15:55, 21 Sep

byTobia Elia

Lando Norris finishes only seventh in the Azerbaijan GP, squandering the chance to significantly close the gap to his teammate in the title fight.

Lando Norris in Baku - Photo: Race Pictures

Speaking immediately after finishing seventh in the race, Norris said: "I think yesterday was just a results performance. I think we were also not that quick, honestly. I don't think we were bad, but I could barely keep up with Tsunoda, and there were parts of the track where the Red Bulls were just unbelievably fast—had no chance to keep up with them in some areas of the track.

"We clearly struggled a little bit this weekend, this race. The car was difficult to drive, on a bit of a knife's edge at times. Easy to either be just too slow, sometimes kind of feel like you're there, and then hook up and then something goes wrong.

"The car didn’t fill us with a lot of confidence this weekend, and I think that showed probably in both of our performances."

'People need to stop being so surprised that Red Bull is quick'

When asked to analyse Red Bull’s regained pace in recent races, Norris added: "It's not often that they're slow, so I think people need to stop being so surprised that they're quick.

"Max was winning races already at the beginning of the year. He could have won round one. I think he was pretty close to winning round two in the sprint or something. The whole season, they've been quick.

"The Red Bulls have been good. They brought some upgrades to Monza, which seems to have helped them improve even more. So not a surprise. I think we know that they're an incredibly strong team and one of the best drivers ever in Formula 1. So we expect nothing less. They're going to make our life difficult, I think, for the rest of the season."

Lando Norris in Baku - Photo: Race Pictures

Norris on the title fight after Piastri's DNF

With his teammate retiring in the opening laps, the Brit had a real chance to significantly close the gap in the Drivers’ Championship - an opportunity that wasn’t fully capitalised on, as he finished seventh in the race. A result well below the potential of the MCL-39.

When asked specifically about the title fight, Norris added: "I'm doing the best I can in every race. Every race I finish second or worse this year was an opportunity lost. I don't really care how people look at it. I wanted to do better today. I needed to do better yesterday, but we went out first. This was just our decision, and we paid the price for that.

"I also could have ended up in the wall, gone long, or something worse could have happened. I feel like I was close to maximising today. It didn't maybe look like it from the outside, but we struggled with the pace. We weren't too optimistic about our pace today. Clearly, we struggled a little bit. I don't think the pace is bad. It's just too difficult to overtake. I'm doing the best I can.

"I know I still have a lot of points to make up against a pretty good driver, an incredible driver. So I just need to keep my head up."

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