Title-chasing McLaren driver Lando Norris remained hopeful of success on Saturday despite qualifying in a lowly 17th place for Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Briton, knocked out of the first qualifying session for the first time since the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, lost his best lap when he eased off due to a yellow flag, but said he would do his best to limit damage to his championship challenge. Norris is 62 points behind three-time champion and series leader Max Verstappen of Red Bull with eight races, and three sprint races, remaining with the Dutchman qualifying in sixth place for Sunday’s race.

Verstappen has failed to win in six races, but showed improved form in practice and qualifying in Baku after a dismal run of form.

“I’m not expecting a lot from 17th,” said Norris.

“But we will put in a good plan tonight and do our best.”

He said his lap, interrupted by the yellows, had been “easily good enough” before he “had to back off”.

His race engineer Will Joseph said: “Mate I’m sorry” on team radio, suggesting he felt that he could have advised him sooner of the spin by Williams’ Alex Albon that led to the yellow flag.

“I hope I’m wrong,” said Norris. “And I hope there are plenty of chances to overtake, but I’m not expecting it. It’s a very low downforce track which makes it pretty much impossible for overtaking.

“It’s worse than people think and not easy, but I’ll do my best.”

Norris’s flop effectively rendered redundant any likely use of team orders this weekend to boost his hopes of victory with support from team-mate Oscar Piastri who starts from the front row alongside pole-sitter Charles Leclerc of Ferrari.

Piastri said: “I got a little bit close to the walls on my last lap — I was just trying to get the most out of it. This track rewards commitment and, last lap in Q3, I knew I had a little less to lose so I just tried to maximise the car.

“It was feeling good all the way through.”

Looking ahead to the race, he said: “Following around here is really tough so it’s good to get soe clean air. We’ll see what I can do. Our race pace is good, but again the Ferraris are not slow.”

Behind Piastri, Carlos Sainz will start from third place in the second Ferrari ahead of Sergio Perez of Red Bull, Mercedes’ George Russell, Verstappen and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in the second Mercedes.

Championship-chasing Lando Norris conceded he and McLaren were well off the pace on Friday after he struggled to 17th place with team-mate Oscar Piastri fifth in second free practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Both drivers were left well adrift of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who outpaced Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to set the fastest time, prompting title-challenger Norris to admit he and his team faced much overnight homework to find a solution. “We’re quite a long way off,” he said, drawing only slight consolation from seeing Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s three-time champion and series leader, wind up sixth behind Piastri.  “I’m having to push way too much to try and get a lap time. Where Oscar is, that is kind of more where I think we are. So, I think if we nail it, we’re just about there, but I’m sure they’re not even close nailing it yet.

“Honestly, I think we have quite a lot to find.” 

Norris, who is 62 points behind Verstappen in the drivers’ title race with eight races remaining, plus three sprint races, said he did not blame an incident with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, on a hot lap, for his poor showing. 

“Probably not his fault,” said Norris. “It’s just that here, you don’t deploy the power until very late so he’s clearly misjudged it. It didn’t matter. I’d done my lap already.”

McLaren said on Thursday that they intended to introduce team orders to support Norris’s title bid during the remaining races, but he made clear he did not want to rely on anyone else in his bid to beat Verstappen.

Assessing the team’s pace, he said: “Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, they are all very similar. And there’s a good three or four-tenths gap back to us. So, we have a lot of work to do. 

“Ferrari are very quick here. And Mercedes will be quick with these track conditions. It’s very ‘slidey’ out there. We perform well on the higher grip circuits. We’re finding it difficult, but we’ll work hard tonight.”

Piastri said he had a “decent day” but added that it was “hard to know at the moment” where McLaren were as the track was “evolving” so much. 

Along with many other drivers, he noted that the circuit conditions were dirty and slippery, particularly early in the day. 

“Ferrari look strong and Red Bull are quick,” he said. “But our long runs look competitive.”

Lando Norris grabbed pole position ahead of his team-mate Oscar Piastri for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday as McLaren locked out the front row of the grid for the first time since 2012. Red Bull’s three-time champion Max Verstappen had to settle for third and the second row in the tense wet-dry qualifying. The 24-year-old Briton, who is 84 points behind Verstappen in this year’s title race, clocked a best lap in one minute and 15.227 seconds to outpace the Australian by 0.022 seconds.

Verstappen was three-hundredths of a second adrift in third ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who leaves the team at the end of the year, and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, who will replace him.

Charles Leclerc, in the second Ferrari was sixth ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso and his Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll and the RBs of Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda, who had survived a high-speed crash earlier in Q3.

It was Norris’s second pole in four races and the third of his burgeoning career as he gains front-running experience in his bid to challenge Verstappen who, on Sunday bids to complete a hat-trick of Hungarian wins.

“I’m very happy with that and it wasn’t easy at all in difficult conditions so ending up on top is the best for us all and a great result for the team,” said Norris.

“We have come into this weekend confident we can do a good job so to be on pole is sweet.”

“It’s the first 1-2 for McLaren for a long time and an amazing result for us,” said Piastri. “I had a tricky day yesterday so for me it is nice to bounce back.”

Verstappen said: “I tried. We have been behind the whole weekend and I tried to make it as close as possible, but it wasn’t enough. I would have liked a bit more grip…”

After Friday’s sweltering conditions for practice, qualifying began in much cooler weather with temperatures and light rain falling.

The McLaren pair were first out on soft slick tyres along with Kevin Magnussen in his Haas.

Under pressure Perez

George Russell was also struggling before the session was red-flagged when Sergio Perez smacked the wall at Turn Eight, having lost control and made a sideways slide into the barriers in the second Red Bull.

For the under-pressure Mexican driver, it was another Q1 setback in a sequence of bad qualifying outings and came just seconds after Russell had saved his car sliding off at the same place as the rain intensified.

After a 12-minute break, the action resumed with Perez hanging on in ninth from his earlier efforts, before he suffered his fourth Q1 exit in six outings as he embarked on two racing weekends that many observers believe offer him a last chance to save his seat at Red Bull.

In a frantic finale to Q1, on a damp circuit, Russell managed to jump from 14th to 10th but it was not enough as others improved to leave him 17th and out, taking an early exit for the second year running at the Hungaroring along with Perez, 16th, Zhou Guanyu of Sauber and the two Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly who stayed in the pits.

Unexpectedly, Daniel Ricciardo was fastest for RB in the changing conditions while Norris was only 13th.

“I’m sorry about this session guys,” said Russell, who had asked for more fuel to prolong his running to three laps. “That one is on me.”

The Q2 segment started with Sainz on top, until Hamilton and then Verstappen took over, the Dutchman in 1:15.770, nine-tenths faster than Hamilton’s pole in 2023. Piastri went second only 0.015 off the pace.

On his second run, Norris took command in 1:15.540 while Hamilton struggled to survive in 10th and Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas of Sauber, Williams’ Alex Albon, Sargeant and Magnussen missed the cut to the top-ten shootout.

All this left Norris and Verstappen to scrap for pole, as rain was forecast, and the Dutchman led them out to clock 1:15.555 before Norris cut that time by 0.328 with his lap in 1:15.227. It was provisional pole, as rain began to fall.

The world champion pushed to improve but stayed third as Yuki Tsunoda crashed at Turn Five in his RB to prompt a red-flag stoppage. It was a big accident, but the Japanese driver was unhurt.

Two minutes and 13 seconds remained, enough time for one more flying run as the marshals cleared the debris. In the event, as it drizzled, only Ricciardo improved his time to take ninth from his team-mate.