BAKU CITY, Azerbaijan — Max Verstappen claimed a lights-to-flag victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday.
While Verstappen was out front, there was plenty of drama behind, which included point leader Oscar Piastri crashing on the opening lap.
Verstappen was never headed on the streets of Baku, leading all 51 laps and winning by over 14 seconds from Mercedes’ George Russell and Carlos Sainz, who claimed his first podium for Williams having just lost out on pole position.
“I think this weekend has been incredible for us,” said Verstappen. “Of course, last [F1] weekend was already great, but for us to win here again is just fantastic. I think also in the race, the car was working really well on both of the compounds [of tyre]. We had clean air all of the time and then you could look after your tires and it was pretty straightforward.
“Of course, it’s not easy around here. It was very windy today, so the car was always moving around a lot, but of course, I’m incredibly happy with this performance.”
It was Verstappen’s fourth win of the season.
With Piastri crashing and his teammate Lando Norris finishing seventh, Verstappen is 69 points behind with seven races remaining.
“It’s difficult to say at the moment, but for sure, the last two race weekends have been amazing for us,” said Verstappen on mounting a title challenge.
“Singapore is a completely different challenge again with the high downforce, but we will see what we can do there.”
Piastri is 25 points ahead of Norris.
“Certainly not my finest moment,” Piastri said.. “I just anticipated the start too much, and it was a silly, simple error with that. Then, the crash – I just didn’t anticipate the dirty air in the way I should have. I clearly went into the corner way too hot and that was that.”
Kimi Antonelli narrowly missed out on the final step of the podium, having run well all day, but was well clear of a fierce battle for fifth, which was headed by Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, who claimed a career-best result.
Yuki Tsunoda finished sixth after applying intense late pressure but in the process claimed his best result for Red Bull, while Norris finished seventh – the same position the McLaren driver started having struggled to make any progress through the sole pit stop sequence.
