Reigning world champion Max Verstappen achieved his 67th career victory in Formula 1 with a dominant lights to flag drive at Baku. His old Toro Rosso teammate Carlos Sainz scored a podium result for Williams.
The Red Bull driver took his second consecutive win at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with the biggest drama was when Oscar Piastri crashing out on the first lap. His McLaren teammate and championship rival Lando Norris only managed seventh to make a small gain in the title fight.
Verstappen ran largely unopposed as a dramatic qualifying session which saw Williams driver Carlos Sainz and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson provide a comfortable buffer between the world champion and his direct rivals from Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari.
But Verstappen’s lightning pace through the streets of Baku showed that even in a straight fight it would have taken some doing to challenge the four-time champion. Starting on hard tyres, Verstappen delayed his only pitstop to mediums to lap 41 of 51 and then crossed the line with a 14-second lead on George Russell, who recovered from illness to take second for Mercedes.
A superb Sainz took the third step on the podium, his first for Williams, as he delivered an impressive drive from second on the grid but was powerless to keep Russell at bay.
One month after Lando’s retirement in Zandvoort, the 2025 title battle between the McLaren drivers affected Piastri with another swing as Oscar crashing out on the opening lap
After a shunt in Q3 which left the championship leader ninth on the grid, Piastri caused a false start and shuffled to the back as he struggled to get up to speed. As he attempted to regain his way back through the field, Piastri locked up on the dirty outside line into Turn 6 and slammed into the barriers at the same scene of his qualifying incident.
Meanwhile, Verstappen was able to safeguard his lead from Sainz, Lawson and both Mercedes cars, while Norris – who also suffered a poor qualifying session – had dropped one position to eighth after being passed by Isack Hadjar.
On the lap 5 restart, Russell was shuffled behind Tsunoda following fierce defending from Mercedes team-mate Antonelli, but soon repassed the Red Bull driver. Norris made a poor restart and was passed by Leclerc, with the pair then soon making their way past Hadjar.
The race turned into a battle of opposite strategies as medium starter Sainz was challenged by Russell on hards. Russell received clear air once Sainz pitted on lap 28 and the Mercedes driver built enough of a gap to come out ahead of the Williams to take over second. But Sainz did do enough to hold off the second Mercedes of Antonelli to claim an emotional maiden Williams podium, a reward for what has been a frustrating season so far.
Third-place starter Lawson initially looked to successfully fend off an undercut attempt by Antonelli, but was still picked off by Kimi on the following lap, who then simply drove away from the Racing Bulls car. Lawson then received the company of Charles Leclerc, who was also on the same medium-to-hard strategy.
Meanwhile, having started on mediums and being stuck behind hard-tyre runner Yuki Tsunoda, Norris delayed his only pitstop until the final stages of the race. But his undercut attempt failed due to a slow front-right tyre change, with the McLaren driver critically also dropping behind the Lawson/Leclerc battle.
As those two duels converged into an entertaining four-car melee for fifth, Lawson immediately pounced as Tsunoda’s tyres got up to temperature to pass his former team-mate, followed by Leclerc and Norris. Norris got by a fading Ferrari driver for seventh and then hunted down Lawson and Tsunoda in the final ten laps.
Lawson needed inch-perfect Turn 16 exits onto Baku’s long straight to keep Tsunoda and Norris behind, and by holding firm the Racing Bulls driver was rewarded with his best-ever race result in fifth. Under-pressure Tsunoda also grabbed a much-needed result in sixth, the Red Bull driver surviving a last-lap overtaking attempt from Norris.
Lando’s seventh place, the same position he started from, was a wasted opportunity to capitalise on Piastri’s exit, only closing the gap to his teammate by six points as Oscar now leads by 25 points.
Hamilton also passed Leclerc to attach his wagon to the Lawson DRS train, but was a spectator as he finished eighth ahead of his Scuderia teammate.
Hadjar claimed the final point in P10 after losing ground at the start, as other midfield teams struggled to gain an advantage. Fernando Alonso earned a five-second penalty for following Piastri into a false start, while Alex Albon was handed a ten-second penalty for a clumsy collision on Franco Colapinto which spun the Alpine driver around.
So a fantastic result for Red Bull with back-to-back victories from Max Verstappen. The upgrades to the RB21 at Monza has made the car competitive and to take another P1 at Baku is a positive step. Even Yuki Tsunoda was able to score a top six result for the team.
Super happy for Carlos Sainz scoring a podium finish for Williams. This was such a rewarding result after a solid qualifying result. What a smooth operator to take P3.
As for the championship fight between the Papayas. Oscar’s mistake was significant and yet Lando was unable to score big points to reduce the gap. McLaren had a chance to win the constructors’ title at Baku but following a disappointing qualifying and a single car finishing in the race, the opportunity to win will move onto Singapore.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:33:26.408
2 George Russell Mercedes +14.609s
3 Carlos Sainz Williams +19.199s
4 Andrea Kimi Antonelli +21.760s
5 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +33.290s
6 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull +33.808s
7 Lando Norris McLaren +34.227s
8 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +36.310s
9 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +36.774s
10 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +38.982s
11 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber +67.606s
12 Oliver Bearman Haas +68.262s
13 Alexander Albon Williams +72.870s
14 Esteban Ocon Haas +77.580s
15 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +78.707s
16 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber +80.237s
17 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +96.392s
18 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1 lap
19 Franco Colapinto Alpine +1 lap
Oscar Piastri McLaren DNF
Max Verstappen claimed a lights-to-flag victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while Lando Norris closed the gap to title rival Oscar Piastri to 25 points after the Drivers’ Championship leader crashed out 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.
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.
The Briton, who slumped to as low a ninth at one stage, was unable to pass Tsunoda on the final lap and only reduced Piastri’s lead in the title race by six points.
This was after the Australian suffered a disastrous opening lap, jumping the lights and then activating anti-stall from P9 before crashing out at Turn 5 having dropped to the back of the field.
Lewis Hamilton led team mate Charles Leclerc on a difficult day for Ferrari after both started down the order, as the second Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar completed the top 10.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-claims-dominant-azerbaijan-win-over-russell-and-sainz-after.gT4fbKTwpl3dI79nDmrHS
Carlos Sainz secured his first podium finish with Williams at the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix after crossing the line in third position.
The Spanish driver branded the podium as the best of his career as he celebrated on team radio on the cooldown lap.
“Vamos! Vamos! Best podium in my career. You cannot imagine how this tastes. Thank you so much. This is my first Smooth Operation in Williams!”
Sainz started the race from second position behind four-time champion Max Verstappen and ultimately finished third. Verstappen clinched a commanding victory and Mercedes’ George Russell took second place.
“I cannot describe how happy I am and how good this feels. It tastes even better than my first ever podium,” Sainz told James Hinchcliffe in a post-race interview.
“We have been fighting hard all year and we proved when we had the speed, we had it all year and everything comes together and we can do some amazing things together.
He added: “I’m extremely proud of everyone at Williams for pushing through a very difficult year. We have proven to everyone the massive step we took compared to last year.
“We are on the rise and the right direction. Unfortunately, with me, we had a lot of bad luck and incidents. Now I understand why it all happened because the first podium needed to come like this.
“It’s just life. Life sometimes brings you these bad moments to give you a very nice one. This tastes much better than any other thing I was expecting.
“It’s a life lesson to keep believing and trusting yourself and your team around you because sooner or later it always pays off.”
Sainz joined Williams at the start of 2025 after being replaced by seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari. Since joining the Grove outfit, the 31-year-old has worked to adjust to the car and team, and has battled bad luck in a number of instances.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/carlos-sainz-hails-best-podium-of-his-career-at-baku-my-first-smooth-operation-in-williams/10761307/
Oscar Piastri was left rueing a mistake-riddled Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend after the Formula 1 championship leader crashed out on the opening lap.
Piastri locked up into the Turn 6 barrier after an already poor start, as the McLaren driver dropped from ninth to last having stopped at race start trying to rectify his jumping of the lights.
But all weekend Piastri hasn’t had it easy. He failed to complete much of FP1 due to a power unit issue, he finished 12th in FP2 after clipping the Turn 15 wall, and although he was third in final practice, it was still messy as Piastri had slides at Turns 1 and 4.
That all carried into qualifying as Piastri secured ninth after crashing in Q3 and his incident the following day ended a 34-race points-scoring streak for the 24-year-old.
“There’s not been anything that’s different and I think for me that’s – it depends how you want to look at that, but for me, if I felt like I was in a completely different headspace then it’s kind of easier to blame it on that and also a problem to rectify,” said Piastri.
“But this weekend’s felt like any other weekend. Just unfortunately there’s been far too many mistakes from start to finish.
“Every single session has been messy. So, yeah, just trying to clean that up is the important thing for the future.”
It leaves Piastri with a 25-point advantage over title rival and team-mate Lando Norris, who failed to take full advantage as he only finished seventh having struggled as well.
Piastri is therefore not going to panic after a poor weekend, as he pointed out how rare it is for him to make so many mistakes ahead of the final seven rounds of the 2025 campaign.
“Obviously, you’re never going to feel amazing after a weekend like this but, ultimately, I felt like the pace has still been good this weekend and I think it’s rare that I have so many executional errors,” added Piastri.
“So, very much focused on putting that behind me. I would be much more concerned if these errors were because I was trying to make up time or do things like that. So, I think they should be, obviously being costly errors, things that can be very, very easily rectified.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/far-too-many-mistakes-oscar-piastri-reacts-to-f1-azerbaijan-gp-crash/10761336/
McLaren’s race hinged on a single pitstop for Lando Norris, the team’s only driver in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Oscar Piastri crashed out during the first lap. But a poor pitstop ruined his chances of a top-five finish.
“The seconds there were so critical because he would have cleared that battle!” Karun Chandhok of Sky Sports F1 noted. “That’s massively frustrating for Lando Norris and McLaren.
“It’s the front-right gun which struggled to tighten up the wheelnut.”
Norris boxed on lap 38, but an issue with the front-right wheel turned it into a four-plus-second stop. This dropped him down to eighth behind Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, rather than rejoining in the clean air as the team expected.
While he had a 17-lap offset to the Monegasque, overtaking at Baku is a difficult task. But the race was on for Norris, who overtook Leclerc on the 41st lap on the run down to Turn 1. Two laps later, he was trapped behind Lawson and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, with the Ferraris in his mirrors. Unfortunately, a DRS train made it difficult to make any progress.
“It really hasn’t worked for Lando with his slow stop – he would have cleared this whole pack of cars!” Chandhok continued.
Norris finished the race in a disappointing seventh.
“I’ll have to review,” said team principal Andrea Stella to Sky Germany. “I think there was an issue on the front right, I’ll have to review and assess, certainly there’s a few things to polish also on the pitstop side.”
On being asked what it cost his driver, he said: “I’m not sure, we should look carefully at the timing, I’m not sure if the one, one and a half second would have been fundamental or not. It’s better to look carefully at the data and then when you have the facts, assess what was possible.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/how-a-pitstop-mistake-derailed-lando-norriss-azerbaijan-gp/10761322/
Max Verstappen admits his lights-to-flag victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was “fantastic” having comfortably controlled Sunday’s race to take back-to-back Formula 1 wins.
The Red Bull driver was never headed over 51-laps on the streets of Baku, having held the lead from pole and, after an early Safety Car restart, slowly pulled away from Carlos Sainz and then George Russell, the pair completing the podium.
“I think this weekend has been incredible for us,” said Verstappen after his fourth win of the 2025 campaign.
“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 tyres 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.”
With Drivers’ Championship leader Oscar Piastri crashing out on the opening lap and title rival Lando Norris only seventh, Verstappen has closed the gap to the top of the table down to just 69 points with seven races remaining.
But the Dutchman was cautious about his title chances despite McLaren enduring its worse weekend of the season and missing out on the Constructors’ Championship in Baku.
“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.”
It was a strong day for Red Bull, with Yuki Tsunoda claiming his best result for the team in sixth having applied late pressure to Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson in the closing stages.
“Happy with it, especially the pace I showed today is a lot different to other race weekends,” said Tsunoda.
“I think I got supported a lot from the team to change massively like this internally and also the efforts I put in over the weeks, definitely shows some improvement there.
“Everything matches well and to be able to secure this result, which definitely is a positive. Some bits I can improve for sure and sharpen up more quality but was a good race.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-hails-fantastic-azerbaijan-victory-after-dominant-performance.36BemJYaH0VR2pfqm26oLw