Lando Norris delivers harsh ‘heroes vs. losers’ verdict in Azerbaijan GP qualifying mess

Lando Norris has admitted that it was his decision to hit the track first for a final attempt at a flying lap in Q3 ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, though in hindsight he realizes that it makes him “look like the loser.”

Norris, clearly frustrated, will line up seventh on the grid for Sunday’s race at the Baku City Circuit after making the wrong call in qualifying.

Lando Norris: “We would have looked like heroes”

Qualifying for the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix turned into a red-flag studded marathon lasting longer than any proper race thus far in the F1 2025 season, with cooler temperatures, wind, and new tyre compounds all combining to make life difficult for twenty of the world’s greatest drivers.

With just over three minutes remaining on the clock in Q3, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri brought out a record-breaking sixth caution flag that forced the field to dip back into the pits for a rethink on strategy in hopes of unseating Carlos Sainz’s provisional pole position time.

With Piastri out of the running, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen had emerged as the most likely candidates for that opportunity, but their approaches couldn’t have been more different.

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Lando Norris made a point of being the first car out on track when the session resumed, with the goal of setting a flying lap without being caught out by someone else’s red or yellow flag.

That decision, though, came with drawbacks. He was the first driver to experience the conditions, with a light rain dusting the track surface. While he was able to set a flying lap without interference, he also allowed the rest of the field to better understand how to approach their own qualifying efforts.

Verstappen, meanwhile, took the opposite decision: He was the last driver out of the pit lane. While that meant he risked being caught out by a red flag, it also meant that, if all went to plan, he’d be able to take advantage of a cleaner track.

The results of the unofficial experiment were clear: While Max Verstappen snatched pole position by four-tenths of a second, Lando Norris was left lamenting the fact that he “kind of looks like the loser” with his seventh-place qualifying position.

“I think it was a mistake from my side, from our side, to go out the pit lane first,” Norris told Sky Sports.

“If there was a yellow flag further back, or a red, we would have looked like the heroes and everyone else would have looked like losers.

“Now I kind of look like the loser and them heroes, but it’s the price you pay sometimes around here, and the risks you’ve got to take.”

Norris confirmed to print media journalists that it was indeed his call to hit the track first, though “tricky conditions” ultimately mean “it was just the wrong decision to make.

“In the end, if everyone else got a yellow behind because someone else went off behind me, you wouldn’t be asking me this question,” the championship contender lamented.

“Sometimes it goes your way around here, sometimes it doesn’t.

“We thought we took the better option. I think it would have been if it wasn’t spitting; it just started to spit again before the final run, and then going out first is just the incorrect thing, so something to learn from.

“The opportunity’s there every single weekend to be on pole. I try and do that every weekend, and today I struggled more because of not making the best decision.

“But that’s a hindsight thing, not an incorrect one at the time.”

This means that Norris, who remains 31 points in arrears of his teammate in the championship standings, lost out on a critical opportunity to get ahead of Piastri. But as things currently stand, the Briton will only start two positions ahead of Piastri; Norris will not be able to amass a more significant points total based on maintaining track position alone.

The notion that he squandered a promising opportunity to turn the championship tides, though, is one that he dismissed outright.

“I did everything I could,” Norris said when the hypothetical was posed to him.

“If I won every race, I could be world champion by now, but I didn’t.”

When it comes down to the race itself, Norris is playing it safe with his predictions. He noted that polesitter Verstappen looks impressively quick around Baku, which likely rules McLaren out of a shot at a win. However, “we’ll be trying to get on the podium.”

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