{"id":158654,"date":"2025-09-21T06:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T06:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/158654\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T06:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T06:20:09","slug":"f1-title-rivals-lando-norris-and-oscar-piastri-must-fight-through-the-pack-at-azerbaijan-gp-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/158654\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri must fight through the pack at Azerbaijan GP \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) \u2014 The Azerbaijan Grand Prix could spring some surprises in the Formula 1 title fight as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will both have to battle their way through traffic.<\/p>\n

Norris starts seventh and his McLaren teammate Piastri ninth for Sunday\u2019s race after a chaotic qualifying session with plenty of crashes, rain and red flags. Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen took pole position in Azerbaijan for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n

On a high-speed street circuit which saw plenty of crashes in qualifying, fighting through the pack could be risky for the two McLaren drivers. Qualifying further back is also a hit to the team\u2019s hopes of sealing the constructors\u2019 title Sunday.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"McLaren
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMcLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain makes a pit stop during the qualifying for the Azerbaijan Formula One Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (AP Photo\/Anton Vaganov, Pool)<\/p>\n

The softer-compound tires in use this week aren\u2019t expected to last long, so strategy could also play a big role.<\/p>\n

The race offers a rare chance to score big points for Williams\u2019 Carlos Sainz, Jr. in second. There are three rookies on the first four rows of the grid as Liam Lawson starts a career-best third for Racing Bulls, Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes is fourth, and Lawson\u2019s teammate Isack Hadjar starts eighth.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Sign<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP auto racing: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/auto-racing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) \u2014 The Azerbaijan Grand Prix could spring some surprises in the Formula 1 title fight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-158654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}