Baku points haul gives McLaren ‘a lot of confidence’ says Norris as team move to top of constructors'

Lando Norris was overjoyed by McLaren’s points haul in Baku after he improved by 11 positions to finish fourth in the race, while his team mate sealed the team's fourth win of the season.

A frustrating qualifying saw the Briton knocked out in Q1 due to slowing for yellow flags, but starting from P15 on the grid proved to be a challenge that Norris relished as he flew through the field with an extended stint on hard tyres.

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Although it seemed certain that he was going to cross the line in sixth, a penultimate lap crash between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz promoted him to fourth place – meaning he ultimately went from P15 to finishing less than five seconds away from the podium.

Oscar Piastri claimed a nail-biting victory ahead of pole-sitter Charles Leclerc, rounding off an immensely successful weekend for McLaren that has propelled them to the top of the constructors’ standings.

Norris said after the race that he was “very happy with the result not just for myself, but for Oscar”, adding that he could “be happier if there wasn’t a yellow flag yesterday”.

“Another win for him is amazing so I’m very happy for him and therefore the whole team, because a win is always an amazing thing,” he explained. “A win and a fourth is even better from where we started and it was not what we were expecting today so a good points haul.

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“Outscored Red Bull again, which is exactly what we were hoping to do, and actually [we were] the top points scorers as a team which was not something I think many people would have bet on before the race. A very strong race, the car was amazing today and that gives us a lot of confidence going into the next few races.”

With seven rounds of the season remaining, McLaren now hold a 20-point lead over Red Bull in the battle for the constructors’ title, marking the first time they have led the championship since 2014.

Reflecting on their improvement over the year since Norris finished 48s behind the race winner in the opening event in Bahrain, he said that he wanted to give “all credit to the team”.

“I’ll take a small part of it and I’m sure Oscar will as well,” he said. “I definitely think we play a good part because I don’t think there’s many other teams out there where two drivers are consistently scoring like Oscar and myself have done.

READ MORE: Piastri edges out Leclerc for dramatic Azerbaijan GP win amid late-race chaos

“If you think back to the first race of the year, we were behind Mercedes and I know that they complained a lot and they’ve improved, but we were racing Mercedes at the first race and in fact probably a little bit slower [than them].

“Now we’re still a long way ahead of them. They’ve done a good job, we’ve done an amazing job. To catch Red Bull, to be outscoring them, to be out-pacing them, and to be the top team in Formula 1 is something we should all be very proud of.”

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