While Norris settled into a rhythm at the front, the action behind him was unrelenting.
On lap six, Verstappen made a big lunge up the inside of Hamilton at turn one, trying to take third place. Hamilton seemed surprised, turning into the Red Bull and touching wheels. The Ferrari driver then tried to take the place back into turn four, only to lock up and go straight on. Hamilton would end up getting a 10-second penalty for gaining an unfair advantage. “That’s such bull—- man,” he complained to his engineer when he was told. “The grip is so low there.”
Verstappen, meanwhile, was suddenly vulnerable to Bearman, losing fourth place to the Briton. He ended up doing an “insane” one-stop, in the words of his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, to reclaim third spot on strategy, before closing on Leclerc in the closing stages, only to be stymied by the VSC.
As for, Piastri, he fought back from a difficult start to pass both Mercedes cars and will be annoyed not to have had a crack at Bearman late on.
This was Norris’s sixth win of the year, and his first since Hungary before the summer break.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko made comments earlier this year about Norris having “mental weaknesses”, which McLaren boss Zak Brown had rebuked. In Baku, Norris was accused of missing out on a similar golden opportunity after Piastri crashed out and he was only able to finish seventh.
Norris knew there would be no hiding place if he failed to cash in this time. The race could not have been set up any better for him, starting on pole, with the fastest car, with a useful buffer between himself and Verstappen, and championship leader Piastri starting down in seventh and looking completely out of sorts.
And he took full advantage. Now he goes from hunter to hunted.
