Lando Norris hails his ‘flying’ McLaren and says he’s ‘surprised’ he overtook Max Verstappen as Brit closes gap on title rival after storming from 15th to finish fourth at Azerbaijan GP

Lando Norris said he was ‘flying’ after reclaiming the world championship lead from Max Verstappen by finishing ahead of him in Baku.

The British driver’s fourth place, compared to Verstappen’s fifth place, also put McLaren in the lead of the constructors’ standings with a 20-point advantage.

There was much joy in the British team paddock for this milestone and the fact that their other driver, Oscar Piastri, took a magnificent victory.

Norris, who never competed for victory, was delighted with his day. He started fifteenth and still managed to reduce his deficit to Verstappen to 59 points.

There are a maximum of 206 more points up for grabs between now and the final race in Abu Dhabi on December 8. “I don’t think we could have asked for much more today,” said Norris. “It was a good start, a good strategy and a great result to be ahead of Max.

‘The car was flying. Because it was so good, I’m even more irritated by yesterday and how ridiculous that yellow flag was (which slowed him down in qualifying).

‘We would have been happy with eighth place. I’m a bit surprised I beat Max, considering where I started.

‘I was actually about 20 to 22 seconds behind after Max went into the pits. To create a gap in front of him and box myself out and then overtake him was not what I expected.’

Norris travelled with Verstappen from Monaco to Baku, showing that their friendship is not affected by their title fight. They kept it clean on track, but Norris defended and passed the world champion, who complained that his car, although substantially improved since Monza, lacked bite.

The Dutchman said: ‘We paid a price with the changes we made to the car for qualifying. We made it worse.

‘It was bouncing a lot. The wheels were coming off the ground in the low speed corners, so when you don’t have any contact with the asphalt it’s not ideal.’

The Formula 1 circus is now travelling to Singapore by charter flight in preparation for the race that will be held under artificial lights in the city-state next week.

Norris’ fourth place in Azerbaijan reduced the championship gap by three points

Max Verstappen has called for further optimisations to defend his championship

What does Verstappen expect there?

‘We have to do better than we did here, but I don’t think this will be our best circuit.’

On the battle for the drivers’ title, he said: ‘If we do better ourselves, McLaren has to do a perfect job until the end of the year.’