2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix – McLAREN Race Report "We will review and ensure we come back stronger"

Baku City Circuit, Sunday, 21 September

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella, after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

As it happened

• At lights out, Oscar has a false start, and Lando loses a position 
• Oscar retires from the race after colliding with the wall on Lap 1
• At the restart after the Safety Car, Lando loses a place to Leclerc
• Lando overtakes Hadjar for P8
• The first round of pit stops begin, Lando extends and starts to move up the order
• Lando pits for Hards and comes out in P8
• With fresher tyres, Lando gets the overtake done on Leclerc
• It's nose-to-tail to the Chequered Flag with Lando finishing in P7

Lando Norris
Started 7th
Finished 7th
Fastest lap 1m44.155s on Lap 42 (+0.767s, 8th)
Pit stops 1, Lap 37 [Medium/Hard] (4.1s)

"A tricky race and a tricky weekend overall. Today the pace was okay, but not enough to overtake. After not doing a good enough job yesterday, and a lack of real strategy options today, there wasn't much more we could have done. Frustrating and not how I wanted the weekend to go, but we'll get our heads down now and look ahead to Singapore."

Oscar quote banner
Started 9th
Finished DNF

"Obviously not the weekend we were looking for in Baku. I made a mistake at the start and then locked up. I want to apologise to the team, especially the mechanics after they did such a great job to get my car back together after Qualifying. We just need to keep our heads down, review, and put this one behind us before coming back stronger next race weekend."

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Andrea Stella

"A difficult weekend at a circuit we knew would be tricky for us. It was confirmation once again that our competitors are not far from us and at some circuits, faster.

"For Oscar, it was a rare weekend with a few uncharacteristic mistakes, but he is already processing the weekend and taking all the learnings ahead of the next round. On Lando's side, we didn't give him a car that was in condition to overtake. He otherwise drove a solid race.

"A big thank you to team trackside for all of their work, especially rebuilding Oscar's car after Qualifying and to the team back in Woking for their great support. We will review our efforts and ensure we come back stronger in Singapore."