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Lando Norris insisted he did not miss an opportunity despite title rival Oscar Piastri crashing out of qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Saturday's session in Baku set a new record for the number of stoppages as the red flags were brought out no fewer than six times for a wide range of crashes and incidents.

One of them could have had huge ramifications for the Formula 1 title race, when Piastri lost control in Q3 and buried his McLaren into the wall. That presented team-mate Norris with the opportunity to put plenty of cars between them on the starting grid of Sunday's race and potentially take a chunk out of the Aussie's championship lead.

But he could not get the job done and he had to settle for seventh on the grid. Perhaps wary that another stoppage could prevent him from setting a lap time at all in Q3, Norris was the first to leave the pit lane following the final restart and paid the price, struggling for pace while the track ramped up for those behind him and that left the Brit powerless to push for pole.

Asked by Sky Sports whether he felt he had missed an opportunity, though, Norris was quick to reply: "Nope." He went on to say he made a mistake on the lap which cost him a bit of time, but which he felt did not explain the huge performance chasm between him and Max Verstappen, who put his Red Bull on pole.

Norris said: " I don't know how much I lost. Two-tenths, maybe? So a couple of positions, but not the one point one seconds to Max. I think it was just a mistake from my side, from our side, to go out of the pit lane first. If there was a yellow flag or a red, we would have looked like the heroes, but now I kind of look like the loser.

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"But that's the price you pay sometimes around here, and the risk you take. Just a decision that didn't work out in the end, so it's something we'll review.

"I'm disappointed of course, I wanted more. It feels like it hurts a bit because this is not normal for us. I made a mistake which cost a couple of places but the rest of the lap wasn't where it needed to be, the grip wasn't there."

Piastri's mistake was an uncharacteristic one for a driver who rarely makes such a glaring error. Explaining what happened, the championship leader said: "I just braked a little bit late. I've not seen any data or anything, but that's normally what happens when you end up locking your brakes.

"It's disappointing, I felt the car was in a good place. A disappointing way to end. The first two corners were really good. I don't know if I just tried a bit too much, or the rain... yeah, I need to have a look but I think I was trying a little bit too hard."

Asked what he feels might be possible in the race from ninth on the grid, Piastri added: "A win is ambitious, but let's wait and see. I think we can make progress, the car has been quick this weekend so hopefully we can use that to make some progress."