There was a consensus across mainstream media following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix that Lando Norris had thrown away a golden opportunity to catch McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri in the drivers’ championship, via an ineffectual and anonymous run to seventh place.
But digging into the details, it wasn’t so clear-cut.
Axiomatically, six points for seventh place does not represent the kind of net gain over Piastri that a victory would have brought. But this assumes that Norris should have won in Piastri’s absence, and in failing to do so he has squandered that gift-wrapped opportunity.