Lando Norris reacts to Oscar Piastri Baku F1 crash and explains failure to take advantage

Lando Norris maintains that Oscar Piastri is "an incredible driver" as he reacted to his Formula 1 title rival's costly crash at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Aussie opened the door for his team-mate to potentially take a chunk out of his championship lead when he buried his McLaren into a barrier on the first lap of the Baku race.

But Norris was unable to take full advantage, finishing seventh having struggled to make any overtakes. The 31-point lead Piastri previously enjoyed has been cut to 25, meaning he still has a full Grand Prix victory's worth of cushion between himself and his chief challenger.

Norris cut across the Sky Sports interviewer after the race, when he was in the middle of being asked if he felt it was a missed opportunity. "I don't know why everyone says that. I did the best I could yesterday and the best I could today," the Brit interjected.

"The opportunities are there every weekend, you know? Every race I didn't win was an opportunity missed, so of course today I wanted more. Seventh was not a good result, but I couldn't do anything more today. It was lost yesterday [in qualifying] because of going out a bit early and not doing the best lap.

"Maybe we could have gained a couple of positions, but I don't think it would have changed anything today. It was impossible to overtake. I look back to yesterday more than anything today. The pace was alright when it needed to be."

Asked for his verdict on Piastri's crash, Norris replied: "I'll focus on myself. Oscar is an incredible driver. I don't know what happened [to him] today, to be honest, but I don't think people realise how easy it is to make mistakes around here. I think it shows that, our car, it's not easy to be up there."

For the latest breaking stories and headlines, sign up to our Daily Express F1 newsletter, or join our WhatsApp community here.

Max Verstappen dominated from start to finish, having also comprehensively taken pole position as a low-downforce setup once again worked in Red Bull's favour. Norris said he was not surprised by the pace the Dutchman showed, given the gains Red Bull have found in recent weeks.

He said: "People have caught up. Red Bull brought upgrades last weekend and they are clearly doing well, their race pace is strong and they've still won plenty of races this year. It's not a surprise - they've improved in some areas and they're a winning team from the last few years.

"We knew they could be a threat and that some of these tracks are not going to be our best, but it was also not our cleanest weekend. There are things we want to do better, but we're doing the best we can every weekend. It's hard to be perfect in the world of Formula 1. I'm trying to work on some things... I'll just continue to do what I'm doing."