Verstappen Wins in Baku: Russell 2nd, Sainz on the Podium; Piastri Out

Verstappen Triumphs in Azerbaijan; McLaren Suffers a Chaotic Weekend

Max Verstappen took the victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while McLaren experienced a weekend full of challenges on the streets of Baku. Oscar Piastri suffered an accident on the first lap, and Lando Norris secured seventh place. After a disastrous qualifying session for McLaren on Saturday, Verstappen started from pole position, while Norris and Piastri began in seventh and ninth place, respectively. Piastri’s race was compromised from the start, moving before the lights went out, which activated his car’s anti-stall system and relegated him to the back of the pack at Turn 1. Trying to recover positions, Piastri went off at Turn 5, locked the front brakes and crashed into the barriers.

I think, in the end, I misjudged the grip level. Probably a lot of that is due to the dirty air [from the cars in front], but I know I shouldn’t expect that lack of grip. I certainly don’t blame anything else. It was two simple mistakes on my part that I caused today.

Oscar Piastri

This incident marked the end of Piastri’s eventful weekend, who also crashed in qualifying. Norris failed to capitalize on his teammate’s mistake, finishing seventh.

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The result means that Norris reduced the gap in the standings to 25 points, the same amount as a victory, with seven races remaining. Norris could have secured fifth place and four additional points if it weren’t for a slow pit stop, which frustrated his chances of overtaking Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson. Piastri received a five-second penalty for his jump start, but, according to FIA guidelines, it will not turn into a grid penalty in the next race.

Just a miscalculation with the lights, I guess I tried to anticipate too much. Yeah, a simple mistake and then the anti-stall kicked in and it went downhill from there, so, a simple mistake.

Oscar Piastri

McLaren’s meager points haul prevented the team from securing their defense of the constructors’ championship, which will likely be decided in the next round in Singapore. Verstappen’s victory, the fourth of the season and the second in a row, puts him 69 points ahead of Piastri in the drivers’ championship.

This weekend has been incredible for us. Monza was already great, but for us to win here is fantastic. The car worked very well with both compounds. We had clean air all the time, so we could take care of our tires, and it was quite straightforward… it’s never easy around here, today there was a lot of wind, so the car was moving a lot. I am incredibly happy with this performance.

Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver dominated the race, maintaining the lead from the start ahead of Carlos Sainz, who started second. Sainz held third place, the first podium for Williams since their second place in the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, behind George Russell, who used an alternative strategy to move from fifth to second for Mercedes.

I can’t describe how happy I am and how good it feels. It tastes even better than my first podium. We have been fighting hard all year and we showed that when we had speed, we had it all year and everything comes together and we can do incredible things together. We nailed the race, not a single mistake, and we managed to beat many cars [on Saturday] that we didn’t expect to beat.

Carlos Sainz

Russell commented: “First of all, congratulations to Carlos and Williams. An incredible result for them. For us, very happy to be back on the podium. It’s been a bit of a tough weekend for me personally, but the car was great. [Kimi [Antonelli]] in P4 as well, so happy with that. I was very happy when I saw the checkered flag, to be honest. Fortunately I felt much better today than on Friday and Saturday. Looking forward to resting a bit now, but happy with the result.” The combined result of Russell and Antonelli (2-4) ensured that Mercedes moved up to second place in the constructors’ championship, four points ahead of Ferrari. Lawson’s fifth place was the best of his career, while Tsunoda secured his best result of the season with the Red Bull team, finishing sixth. Lewis Hamilton finished in eighth place, behind the battle for fifth place between Lawson, Tsunoda and Norris. The seven-time champion was given eighth place by his teammate Charles Leclerc, who was out of the running for a place in the top six. Hamilton tried to give the position back to Leclerc at the end, but still crossed the line ahead of his teammate. Isack Hadjar secured the last point for Racing Bulls.