Norris plays down missed opportunity in Baku
BAKU :Lando Norris denied missing a great chance to bank big points after championship-leading McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri crashed out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Briton finished seventh, where he had started on the grid, to cut the Australian's advantage from 31 to 25 points with seven rounds of the Formula One season remaining.
"I did the best I could yesterday and the best I could today," Norris said.
"The opportunities are there every weekend. Every race I didn't win was an opportunity missed so of course today I wanted more. Seventh was not a good result, but I couldn't do anything more today."
The Briton said his chance had been lost in Saturday qualifying.
"It was just impossible to overtake," he said of Sunday's race and being caught in a high-speed train behind Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda and Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson in a race dominated by Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Norris said Red Bull's speed was not a surprise, they had brought upgrades to the previous race at Monza that Verstappen also won from pole, and McLaren had expected them to be a threat.
"If I could go back to yesterday and change some things, I certainly would," he added. "But we're doing the best we can every weekend. It's just hard to be perfect in the world of Formula One.
"We're struggling in some of these lower downforce circuits still...but we still had our fair share of doing well and very promising performances.
"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."
