What have you done, Lando?
Two things, actually. You scorned a decent opportunity of a lifetime to take a substantial chunk out of the world championship lead held by Oscar Piastri, who twice crashed into the wall, in qualifying and in the race, in Azerbaijan.
Both times Piastri’s exit from proceedings presented a route by which you might have made giant inroads on his advantage.
Yes, you trimmed the Australian’s control a touch, from 31 points to 25, by dint of your finishing seventh.
But, as Churchill said of Dunkirk, it was a deliverance, not a victory.
It was far from a bad drive in the 51-lap race itself, but nor a weekend-changingly buccaneering one. It was an afternoon, let’s be honest, hopelessly hamstrung by the events of qualifying 24 hours earlier.
Max Verstappen stands proudly while being flanked by George Russell and Carlos Sainz
Verstappen celebrates his victory in Azerbaijan moments after the race come to a conclusion
And to problem No2. Max Verstappen has returned to the fringe undergrowth of the world championship jungle.
The Dutch lion’s victory here was his second in succession, following triumph in Monza a fortnight ago. This one was carefully, gradually and beautifully accumulated. It put him within 69 points of Piastri.
It was not an exhibition of brutality, of squaring up at this corner or that, but then not all his best work needs to be.
Before returning to Norris, hats off to Verstappen’s podium pals. Yes, he led from start to finish, utterly dominant, beyond reach and 14.6sec clear at the chequered flag.
We raise a flute to George Russell, too, for finishing second. He had a high temperature with fever these last few days but delivered despite illness. His involvement had been in doubt as he recovered on Friday, so Mercedes boss Toto Wolff revealed when the action was over.
What a season Russell has executed. Get that new contract to his door, pronto.
Carlos Sainz crossed the line third for Williams. Hurrah. This was the British team’s first podium for four years, the Spaniard having capitalised on a mad qualifying session that placed him second on the grid, in a race that was a touch dull.
Norris started yesterday where he never should have been, in seventh, after that first Piastri crash. He had one lap on Saturday to put his right foot down on his rival’s coconuts.
Marshals clear away the car of Oscar Piastri after the Australian crashed again in Baku
His task was to claim pole or a front-row slot. Yet, he produced a tepid lap, only two places ahead of Piastri, who was walking back to the garage by this stage, a little bruised literally and metaphorically.
Norris grazed the wall at Turn 15, hence his predicament.
Verstappen, masterful amid spots of rain, was 1.122sec faster than Norris. It was limpid clear who had grabbed the scruff of the neck at the end of a wind-tossed, two-hour long qualifying marathon comprising six red flags – the defining action of Norris’s weekend.
Norris blamed a wetter track, brought about by going out first, for his relatively dilatory ‘flying’ lap. I am not sure that 12 men good and true would have concurred. Verstappen began his own blaze to pole glory just moments later, the conditions barely having changed. The discrepancy cost no more than recurring fractions.
So there was the question hanging over Norris whether he could rise to the task before him in the race itself. In a tough assessment, worthy of a world championship contender, he did not show abundant conviction. In his last stint, after changing tyres, he could not unleash any pyrotechnics – nobody did, though. Overtaking was in short supply.
Verstappen, meanwhile, will have to topple steep maths to clinch a fifth world title. It’s as hard for him as this: if he won all the remaining races and the three sprints – in Austin, Brazil and Qatar – he would score 199 points.
Third place in every race for Piastri would nearly be enough for him to hold on.
Have Red Bull turned a corner? They are going well. The package they deployed in Monza and here, and will do in Las Vegas in November, was introduced at Silverstone under Christian Horner, the now departed team boss.
But tracks less favourable to Verstappen’s machinery await, not least in Singapore a week on Sunday, so he is far from favourite for coronation. But he is Max Verstappen, so beware.
As for Piastri’s hoarding-hitting cameo, following his bloomer on Saturday, he slipped down the field to 18th as the lights went out. It turned out he had false-started, arrested his progress, and was stilled for a moment.
Fernando Alonso, behind the glued-to-the-spot Australian, had to divert his Aston Martin left to avoid running into the back of him.
Piastri then hit the Louis Vuitton signage at the fifth corner, a left-hander, on lap one, locking up and going straight on, his race over a year on from winning here.
He watched most of the remainder of proceedings from behind a marshal’s catch-fence. It could have been plenty worse for him, as he put his feet up on the ledge.
