Max Verstappen Dominates Azerbaijan Grand Prix; McLaren Suffers
The driver Max Verstappen took the victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while McLaren’s weekend on the streets of Baku was marked by bad luck. Oscar Piastri suffered an accident on the first lap, and Lando Norris, for his part, achieved a seventh place. After a disastrous qualifying session for McLaren on Saturday, Verstappen started from pole position, while his rivals Norris and Piastri did so from seventh and ninth position, respectively. Piastri’s race was compromised from the start. He moved before the lights went out, activated the anti-stall system of his single-seater, and fell to the back of the pack at the first corner. While the championship leader was trying to recover positions on the first lap, he went off the track on the outside of a group of cars at turn 5, locked the front brakes and crashed into the barriers.The incident marked the end of Piastri’s error-filled weekend, who also crashed in qualifying. This gave his teammate, Norris, a golden opportunity to cut points in the championship, 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 position.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
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.
McLaren’s lowest points total this year also meant that the team missed the opportunity to secure their defense of the constructors’ championship, which will 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 he is now 69 points ahead of Piastri in the drivers’ championship.Just a miscalculation with the lights, I guess I tried to anticipate too much. Yes, a simple mistake and then I entered the anti-stall system and from there it was all downhill, so, a simple mistake.
Oscar Piastri
The Red Bull driver was in a class of his own at the front of the group after maintaining the lead at the start ahead of Carlos Sainz, who started second on the grid. Sainz held onto third place in the end, Williams’ first podium since their second place at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, behind George Russell, who used an alternative strategy to move from fifth to second place for Mercedes.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 were able to take care of our tires, and it was quite straightforward… It’s never easy around here, it was very windy today, so the car was moving a lot. I am incredibly happy with this performance.
Max Verstappen
I can’t describe how happy I am and how good I feel. It tastes even better than my first podium. We have fought a lot throughout the year and proved 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 start of the weekend, said: “Firstly, 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 now, but I’m happy with the result.” The combined result of Russell and Antonelli, 2-4, ensured that Mercedes moved into 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 in the battle for fifth place between Lawson, Tsunoda and Norris. The seven-time champion received eighth place from his teammate Charles Leclerc, who was out of the running for a position in the top six after pitting significantly earlier than his rivals. Hamilton tried to give the position back to Leclerc at the end when he couldn’t make progress to overtake the cars ahead, but still crossed the line ahead of his teammate. Isack Hadjar secured the last point on offer for Racing Bulls.
