Norris F1 title dream takes a blow after woeful Baku Qualifying

Much of the talk after Monza headed to Baku was McLaren's team orders to have Oscar Piastri playing ball in Norris' quest for his F1 title tilt this year. In the end, the track is where talking is done. The Englishman made a mistake with pace in the car to do far better.

Piastri was P3 in the sister car at the end of the first stanza of Qualifying. Noris was half a second slower when it mattered. Notably, his title rival Max Verstappen was up in P6. All the Red Bull ace has to do is keep Norris at bay or finish behind him to increase or limit damage. The triple F12 World Champion leads by 62 points ahead of Round 17.

After not making Q3 for the first time this season, Norris said afterwards: "Everyone did their second laps and I didn't. It was unlucky, that's all. I had to lift. It is what it is. There's a long race ahead, we have some good tyres in the bank,

Norris continued: "I think the car is quick. Bit frustrating, but nothing I can do," reckoned Norris, who might have been well advised to put down a banker with his first run.

After ending the session P17, a visibly disconsolate, Norris lamented during the TV pen interview: "The lap was easily good enough but it was a yellow flag so I had to back off."

As for the Grand Prix on Sunday, the McLaren driver said: "I don't think it's easy, honestly following is pretty much impossible around here and overtaking is a lot worse than what everyone thinks. I hope I'm wrong and I hope there are plenty of chances but I'm not expecting so, there are a lot of cars behind.

"It's very low downforce which is pretty much impossible to overtake, I'm not expecting a lot from 17th, but we will put in a good plan tonight and do our best," added Norris

Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok summed it up aptly: "Of all the scripts we saw, none of them predicted Lando Norris, the championship challenger would be out in Q1."