Jacques Villeneuve prods Lando Norris about McLaren team orders in Baku

Lando Norris says he was “happy” that he “played a small part” in Oscar Piastri’s F1 victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Starting from 15th on the grid after an unfortunate Q1 exit, Norris was forced to play a crucial role in helping Piastri stay ahead of Sergio Perez through the pit stop phase.

Norris fended off Perez, deliberately holding the Red Bull driver up through the middle sector of the lap.

Piastri made his stop, one lap later than Perez, he crucially rejoined ahead.

This allowed Piastri to push on, ultimately overtaking Leclerc to take the win.

After the race, 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villenueve asked Norris if it was “difficult” to accept team orders.

Norris replied: “It’s tough. At that point I was stuck behind Alex, so couldn’t do a lot. I didn’t slow down, I just saved my tyres a little bit more.

“It allowed Oscar to stay ahead and potentially get a win. I’m happy that I helped him, and played a small part in that. I don’t think it cost me. It’s always impossible to know.

“I was stuck behind Alex so I don’t think it changed the outcome. But it changed the outcome for Oscar so that was my job, to help Oscar.”

Norris’ race came alive once he was put in clear air after Alex Albon stopped.

Norris felt he was able to utilise his strength of looking after the tyres once he was given clean air before overtaking Max Verstappen in the closing laps.

“The biggest question was: how would the hards last? In dirty air, you can destroy tyres quicker. To know how to push, to get past, or to save then push in clean air, is the driver’s job to manage these things.

“One of my strengths is race pace and how I manage the tyres. Coming to Monza, here and Singapore we knew our main contenders would be Ferrari. Between Carlos and Charles they have put us under pressure. Ferrari will be good next weekend.

“But our car works well everywhere, medium speed or high speed. We struggle more in slow speed but, clearly, had the fastest car today. I’m happy, I wasn’t expecting it to be so good.”

It's the first time McLaren have led the constructors' championship in 10 years, stretching back to 2014.

"Of course, a bit lucky with the two cars crashing out which helped me," Norris explained. "The pace was good, at the end of the first stint on the hards, as soon as Alex got out my way, the pace was amazing. It was a good result for us a team. Oscar, I’m even happier for. For McLaren to be on top of the constructors’ for the first time in many, many years? To play a part in that is fantastic."