Verstappen Wins in Baku; Russell and Sainz on the Podium, Piastri Out

Verstappen Dominates Azerbaijan Grand Prix; McLaren Suffers

Max Verstappen took the victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while McLaren had a chaotic weekend on the streets of Baku. Oscar Piastri suffered an accident on the first lap, and Lando Norris achieved a 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, as he moved before the lights went out, which activated his car’s anti-stall system and caused him to fall to the back of the pack at the first corner. While trying to regain positions on the first lap, Piastri went wide on the outside of a group of cars at Turn 5, locked the front brakes, and crashed into the barriers.

I think, ultimately, 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. Certainly, I 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 a weekend full of errors for Piastri, who also crashed in qualifying. This gave his teammate, Norris, a golden opportunity to score points, but just as he couldn’t take advantage of Piastri’s mistake in qualifying, Norris also couldn’t capitalize in the race, finishing in seventh place.

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The result means that Norris has 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 more points if it weren’t for a slow pit stop, which frustrated his chances of overtaking Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda in sixth place and Racing Bull’s Liam Lawson in fifth.

Piastri was given a five-second penalty for his jump start, but, according to the FIA stewards’ guidelines, it will not be converted into a grid penalty in the next race.

Simply, a miscalculation with the lights, I guess trying to anticipate it too much. Yes, a simple mistake and then it went into the anti-stall system and everything went downhill from there, so, a simple mistake.

Oscar Piastri

McLaren’s lowest points total of the year also meant that the team missed the opportunity to secure their defense of the constructors’ championship, which will now likely be won in the next round in Singapore. Verstappen’s victory, his fourth of the season and second in a row, after winning two weeks ago in Monza, means that he is now 69 points behind 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 it was very windy, so the car was moving a lot. I am incredibly happy with this performance.

Max Verstappen

The Red Bull driver was in a class of his own at the front of the pack, after maintaining the lead at the start ahead of Carlos Sainz, who started second on the grid. Sainz held onto third place at the end, Williams’ first podium since their predetermined second place at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, behind George Russell, who used an alternative strategy to move from fifth on the grid to second at the end 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 the 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

Meanwhile, Russell, who wasn’t feeling well at the end of the weekend, said: “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 also in P4, 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. I’m looking forward to resting a bit, but I’m happy with the result.”

The combined result of Russell and Antonelli’s 2-4 finish 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, who replaced Lawson at Red Bull two rounds earlier this season, achieved his best result of the season with the senior Red Bull team in sixth place. Lewis Hamilton finished in eighth place, at the tail end of the battle for fifth place between Lawson, Tsunoda and Norris. The seven-time champion ceded eighth place to his teammate Charles Leclerc, who was out of the running for a top-six finish after pitting much earlier than his rivals. Hamilton tried to give the position back to Leclerc at the end, when he failed to move forward to overtake the cars ahead of him, but still crossed the finish line ahead of his teammate. Isack Hadjar secured the last point at stake for Racing Bulls.