Lando Norris qualified only P17 for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix because a yellow flag during his last lap in Q1 forced him to slow down and abandon his lap.

After a few mash-ups in the starting grid with Lewis Hamilton starting from the pitlane due to a penalty for power unit changes and Pierre Gasly getting disqualified from qualifying, he got to start 2 positions higher in P15 but still had many cars to overtake in front of him, if he wanted to catch Max Verstappen.

Starting on hard tires as part of an alternate strategy, Norris made a strong start and moved into the top 10 after only a few laps, following Alex Albon, who was also on hard tires as well and gave the McLaren driver quite a hard time. Albon also held up some drivers on medium tires, like Verstappen and Russell, after their early pitstops.

When Albon finally pitted, Norris had clear track for a few laps before he made his own stop on lap 38. Russell managed to pass Verstappen and make it to the podium, thanks to a collision between Sainz and Perez, who were ahead of him. Norris then quickly closed the gap and overtook struggling Verstappen to finish fourth with the fastest lap as a cherry on top.

"I don't think we could have asked for a lot more today," said Norris quoted by Motosport.com. 

"We would have been happy with eighth, as we just expected the top four teams to go with me being the eighth car.

"A good start, good strategy. I mean, I would have loved to have got past Alex a bit earlier. He made my life tough. As soon as Alex boxed, I think my pace was the best on track, even on the hards from the beginning of the race, and I managed to create a good gap and just unlock all the potential that the car had.

"The car was flying, which almost made me more annoyed about yesterday and how silly that yellow flag was."

He also mentioned that it was a bit surprising for him to beat the reigning champion.

"When you start 15th, you don't really expect to beat him [Verstappen]. I was about 20-22 seconds behind on real terms where they were. But to create a gap ahead of him and then to box and to still overtake him. I wasn't expecting that probably,” Norris added.

With this result, Norris closed the gap to the Driver’s Championship leader Max Verstappen from 62 points to 59, and helped McLaren to jump Red Bull in the Constructor's Championship standings.