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The fact that Lando Norris was only able to make up three points on Max Verstappen in the battle for the Formula 1 championship was perhaps a disappointment before the Grand Prix weekend in Azerbaijan.

All the momentum was with Norris and McLaren, making what once seemed like slim chances of winning the title more realistic as Verstappen’s points lead dwindled.

However, Norris’s crossing the finish line in fourth place ahead of the Red Bull driver on Sunday was a remarkable achievement, as he had started the race nine places behind Verstappen after a yellow flag led to a surprise exit from qualifying on Saturday.

“I didn’t expect it to go so well,” Norris admitted to Sky Sports after the race. Yes, he was very lucky on the penultimate lap, gaining two positions after Sergio Pérez and Carlos Sainz crashed, but he had already done the work needed to beat Verstappen, who was one place behind in fifth.

It looked like a lost cause at times. At the end of a week dominated by discussions about McLaren’s use of team instructions and a greater effort to favour Norris in his championship fight, the Briton became the wingman. A brief hold-up by Pérez on his out lap ensured that Oscar Piastri stayed ahead of the Red Bull – a crucial moment on the way to the Australian’s victory.

Shortly afterwards, Verstappen appeared in Norris’ rear-view mirror and, with a pit stop still to come, it looked as if Norris was going to drop back and lose ground to the Dutchman in the championship.

Instead, the day was a win for Norris, as Verstappen had to endure a tough race on the streets of Baku. Tough, but not a disaster. The F1 drivers’ championship is still within his grasp.

How Norris managed to catch up

Norris was sceptical about his chances of recovering after qualifying, pointing to the difficulty of overtaking in Baku and the tendency for DRS queues to form. Starting on the hard tyres allowed him to get well into the race before pitting, potentially taking advantage of a safety car or further incidents.

The race was uneventful until the penultimate lap, leaving Norris to finish the chase alone. He gained three places on the first lap before overtaking Yuki Tsunoda and Oliver Bearman to move into the top 10. Verstappen was around 12 seconds ahead of him in fifth place, a considerable gap that Norris had to make up at the start.

Even after McLaren’s weak qualifying, Verstappen again had no answer to Norris. (Joe Portlock/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

The decision to run on the hard tyres for so long was the deciding factor for Norris. Alex Albon, who was a few places ahead of him and benefited from Williams’ high straight-line speed, joined him in this strategy. While Piastri, Charles Leclerc and Pérez were all able to overcome the Albon-Norris roadblock, Sainz and Verstappen were not far enough ahead at their pit stop to do the same.

Both quickly caught Albon and Norris thanks to their fresh hard tyres, which suited Verstappen better than his medium tyres at the start of the stint. Sainz managed to overtake Norris on lap 23 and Albon a lap later, giving him the opportunity to finally catch the leaders in the closing stages before the collision with Pérez ended his race.

Verstappen was unable to repeat Sainz’s charge. On lap 24, Verstappen attempted to overtake Norris at the first corner, but the McLaren defended on the inside. Even with DRS on at the exit of turn 2, Verstappen was unable to get close enough to overtake Norris. Verstappen clipped the corner at turn 15 and reported that his brakes were not working, which his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase attributed to high temperatures behind Norris.

Verstappen’s attempt to overtake Norris on lap 24 was the best he could manage. Norris, now behind Albon and benefiting from DRS behind the Williams, knew it would be difficult to overtake him, so he used this phase of the race to conserve his tyres before Albon pitted, which then allowed Norris to set a series of fast laps.

“That saved my race,” explained Norris. “Once Alex was out of the way, I was able to pull away from Max, I was also able to pull away from George (Russell) behind me who was on much fresher tires. That allowed me to run up front.”

Verstappen had already used up the best tires immediately after the pit stop and reported over the radio that he was having problems with the grip on the rear axle. Norris, on the other hand, was able to gain time: in the last eight laps before the pit stop, he overtook Verstappen on each of the two laps and increased the gap from 0.6 seconds to 3.7 seconds.

Norris’ ability to conserve the tyres and keep them alive towards the end of the stint is an underrated quality. It enabled him to launch his late charge on Verstappen at Imola, where he narrowly missed out on victory, and it was on full display again here. “That’s probably one of my strengths in Formula 1 at the moment and all year it’s been my race pace and how I can manage my tyres,” said Norris. “Not graining the tyres is not normally my strength, that’s normally my weakness. I grain them like crazy!”

After Norris pitted and left Fernando Alonso behind, he had a clear path for Verstappen, who was 15 seconds ahead of him. The difference in speed was so great that with three laps to go, Verstappen was unable to react to Norris’s manoeuvre at Turn 1, costing him an unlikely loss of points.

Combined with Piastri’s win, Norris helped McLaren lead the Constructors’ Championship for the first time since 2014. He even went so far as to claim that Ferrari, not Red Bull, would be the team’s biggest threat in the coming races.

“We clearly had the fastest car today,” said Norris. “It’s a nice surprise for us and a good confidence boost.”

Norris is now 59 points behind Verstappen in the drivers’ championship. (Kym Illman/Getty Images)

The good news for Verstappen

A seventh race without a win – and only two podium finishes in that time – doesn’t inspire much optimism for Verstappen and Red Bull. But there are a few bright spots to take away from the weekend.

The breakthrough was understanding the issues that made the RB20 car so difficult. The new surface proved on Friday to be a positive step in giving both drivers more confidence, but the setup changes to Verstappen’s car before qualifying took him in the wrong direction.

“We paid the price for that, it’s probably as simple as that,” Verstappen told Sky Sports. “If you look at Checo, he drove a much better race. He seemed more relaxed.” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner claimed that Pérez would probably have won the race if Norris hadn’t held him up.

“We tried something different with the setup before qualifying, but it didn’t work,” said Verstappen. “You win and lose as a team. Of course I’m not happy with this performance, but on the other hand, sometimes things work out really well. You make a few final changes before qualifying and that brings the car together. Unfortunately, it didn’t work this time.”

But the bigger “victory” for Verstappen is that his championship lead was only reduced by three points on a poor weekend that saw McLaren win the race.

Without his Q1 exit, Norris would likely have had the pace to enter the battle for the lead and take a larger share of the points advantage. Instead, his lead has shrunk from 62 to 59 points.

Those three points could be crucial in Abu Dhabi, the last race of the season. At the moment, it looks like Baku could be a good opportunity for Verstappen.

“You could call it a bad weekend for me; we didn’t lose too many points,” said Verstappen. “So that’s the positive we can take from it. I also know we can do a lot better. That’s what we’ll try to do next time.”

It means Verstappen leaves Baku one race closer to his goal of defending his title and, perhaps more importantly, with valuable insight into why the weekend went so wrong, even if he is running out of time to resolve those issues.

The same championship discussion will of course play out in Singapore next week. The momentum remains with McLaren and its new constructors’ lead. But in the Verstappen-Norris battle, Baku will probably end in a draw. It was only a negligible advantage for Norris, which could have been much more painful for Verstappen.

Satisfactory? No. But Verstappen will certainly take it first.

Top photo: Dan Mullan/Getty Images