{"id":2818,"date":"2026-09-25T10:54:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/?p=2818"},"modified":"2026-09-25T10:54:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:54:26","slug":"norris-says-baku-podium-impossible-as-mclaren-straight-line-weakness-bites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/norris-says-baku-podium-impossible-as-mclaren-straight-line-weakness-bites\/","title":{"rendered":"Norris says Baku podium \u201cimpossible\u201d as McLaren straight-line weakness bites"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lando Norris accepted responsibility for the mistake that left him fifth but insisted his McLaren lacks the straight-line speed required to fight through the field<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">News Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Lando Norris qualified fifth and finished 1.146s behind George Russell<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The McLaren driver said he would rather \u201cdie trying\u201d for pole than settle for a safe lap<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Norris believes his lack of straight-line speed makes a Baku podium impossible<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lando Norris believes challenging for an Azerbaijan GP podium will be \u201cimpossible\u201d after qualifying fifth with a significant straight-line speed disadvantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The McLaren driver finished <strong>1.146s behind pole-sitter George Russell<\/strong> and two places behind team-mate Oscar Piastri. Norris felt second place was available but locked up at Turn 3 after pushing the braking point too far on his decisive lap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt was working well, to be honest,\u201d Norris told <em>Sky Sports F1<\/em>. \u201cOscar\u2019s P3. I think a P2 was possible. I felt confident in the car. I just pushed the braking a bit too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c<strong>I\u2019d rather die trying to get a pole than just settle for third, fourth, fifth, sixth or whatever.<\/strong> I want to put together a perfect lap, not just an average lap. I paid the price for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Norris says McLaren remains \u201ca long way off\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Norris had already sounded the alarm after Thursday practice, when he finished almost 1.5s behind Russell and described the deficit as <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/news\/what-norris-1-5-second-deficit-means-for-baku-qualifying\/\">\u201ca little knife in the heart\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McLaren closed part of that gap in qualifying, with Piastri missing the front row by only <strong>0.001s<\/strong>. Russell, however, remained untouchable and <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/russell-crushes-rivals-by-0-8s-to-take-azerbaijan-gp-pole\/\">secured pole by a dominant 0.837s margin<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe car\u2019s not been bad. It\u2019s just we\u2019re a long, long way off,\u201d Norris said. \u201cEspecially my car, it\u2019s just a long way off in the straights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s limiting because there are a lot of straights here. <strong>It\u2019s just painful, but there\u2019s nothing I can do.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Norris considers a Baku podium impossible<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Norris starts behind Russell, Charles Leclerc, Piastri and Isack Hadjar. Although Baku normally provides overtaking opportunities, its longest passing zones depend heavily on acceleration and top speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked whether he could fight for a podium, Norris replied: \u201cOf course, I hope for a podium. <strong>But with my straight-line speed, it will be impossible.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The McLaren driver will also need to defend from Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly and Max Verstappen immediately behind him. Baku\u2019s long run from Turn 16 to the first corner could leave Norris vulnerable if his speed deficit remains unchanged in race trim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>GRANDE PR\u00caMIO<\/strong> follows every session of the Azerbaijan GP <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/\">LIVE and in REAL TIME<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">FAQ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where did Lando Norris qualify for the Azerbaijan GP?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Norris qualified fifth for McLaren, 1.146s behind George Russell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lando Norris accepted responsibility for the mistake that left him fifth but insisted his McLaren lacks the straight-line speed required to fight through the field News Summary Lando Norris believes challenging for an Azerbaijan GP podium will be \u201cimpossible\u201d after qualifying fifth with a significant straight-line speed disadvantage. The McLaren driver finished 1.146s behind pole-sitter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020315991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"42wp_featured_image_caption":"Norris says McLaren straight-line deficit makes Baku podium impossible","42wp_featured_image_credits":"McLaren","42wp_featured_video":"","42wp_featured_image_hidden":false,"42wp_authors_list":[{"id":58,"location":""}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[517,117,10],"42wp_author":[58],"class_list":["post-2818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","tag-azerbaijan-gp","tag-lando-norris","tag-mclaren","42wp_author-vicente-soella"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2819,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2818\/revisions\/2819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020315991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2818"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=2818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}