Lando Norris makes ‘incredible’ Oscar Piastri comment after his unusual Azerbaijan Grand Prix crash

McLaren could have wrapped up the constructors’ championship at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but ended up having their worst weekend of the season.

The 2025 Formula 1 campaign has been extraordinary for McLaren, and they’ll wrap up their second constructors’ championship in a row very soon.

Mercedes leapfrogged Ferrari in the standings after George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished second and fourth, respectively, but they would need Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to fail to score a point for the rest of the season to mount the biggest comeback in sporting history.

Both Norris and Piastri are concentrating on trying to win their first drivers’ championship, but the Azerbaijan Grand Prix did neither of them any favours.

Piastri blamed himself for his sloppiest weekend of the season, crashing both in qualifying and the race itself.

Fans were surprised to learn that Piastri’s false start penalty was wiped as a result of failing to complete the first lap, finding the barriers to top off a miserable return to Baku.

Norris started the weekend 31 points behind his teammate, but failed to capitalise, with Max Verstappen suddenly putting himself back in contention to win the championship.

After finishing P7, Norris spoke about his teammate’s weekend and how competitive Red Bull appear to be now after back-to-back wins for the Dutchman.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

Lando Norris says Oscar Piastri is an ‘incredible driver’ despite Azerbaijan Grand Prix crash

Norris was questioned by Sky Sports F1 (21/9 2:23 pm) about Piastri not having many chinks in his armour, but this weekend, the Australian was unable to match his pace and then went off.

He was asked whether it registers with him at all, or if he just needs to get on with his job, and answered: “What do I know? I’ll focus on myself.

“Oscar’s an incredible driver, so I doubt it will do anything with what happened yesterday, and a new car, I don’t know what happened today, to be honest.

“I don’t think people realise how easy it is to make mistakes around here, but I think it shows just shows that our car is not easy to be up there.

“I don’t think we were as easily quick as the Red Bull, even when I was following Tsunoda, there were some places where there was no chance we could be as quick as them.

“Red Bull are doing a good job. We’re struggling in some of these lower downforce circuits still, like Vegas. I think we know we’re going to struggle once again.

“But, we still had our fair share of doing well and some very promising performances, so I think we just keep focused and keep doing what we’re doing and trying to extract everything.

“A few less mistakes than we’ve made this weekend, but I think the mistakes Oscar’s made and I’ve made just prove it’s not an easy car to drive still.

“It can be unbelievably fast at times, but places like here and other tracks, it can still bite you if you just put one step wrong, and that’s what we’re trying to work on.

“It’s difficult to improve, but it can bite, it bit me this weekend, and it bit Oscar.”

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration

Lando Norris thwarted by second slow McLaren pit stop in Baku

Norris had the perfect opportunity to close the gap to Piastri in the championship after his crash in qualifying, but a conservative effort on his final flying lap meant he only started seventh.

Overtaking was extremely difficult in Baku, with DRS trains and the changing direction of the wind making picking a braking point very tricky for drivers.

Norris could have overcut Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda and Charles Leclerc with a quick pit stop, but a second slow stop in succession meant he had to settle for P7 at the chequered flag.

It puts him within one victory of Piastri, but with Verstappen now charging in an upgraded Red Bull, the pressure is building on both McLaren drivers to deliver their first championship.