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.
The full top 10 are- P1: Verstappen, P2: Russell, P3: Sainz, P4: Antonelli, P5: Lawson, P6: Tsunoda, P7: Norris, P8: Hamilton, P9: Leclerc and P10: Hadjar.
What a result for Max Verstappen, he done no wrong this weekend and his reward from that is he is starting to come into this title fight with Piastri and Norris. A few more races like that for the Dutchman and McLaren will start thinking they are in trouble (if they are not doing that already).
As for Tsunoda, he finished 6th! A good result for the Japanese driver, he had a good weekend overall, he needs to start putting in performances like this to make sure he has a seat next year.
P2 for Russell! A great result for the Mercedes man, they had the pace this weekend which was good, they also got to capitalise on McLaren and Ferrari not being in the top five. This has benefited the team massively in the Constructors’ Championship as they move up a spot.
A good result for Antonelli, P4, a shame for him to miss out on the podium but still a really good result.
P3 for Mr Carlos Sainz! What a result for Sainz and Williams, this just shows how much work they have put into the past couple of years and with Sainz you could see the result coming but he just had to work for it.
This helps the team massively in the constructors putting them in fifth on 101 points, with a 29 point gap to Racing Bulls.
Talking of Racing Bulls, P5 for Liam Lawson. A good result from him, it’s a shame he couldn’t hold onto a podium position but still a really good showing from him.
A weekend to forget for McLaren, especially Piastri, hitting the wall in Qualifying and then crashing out on Lap 1 and ending his race there. As for Norris he had a bad race, not many moves being made.
Not a very good weekend for Ferrari either, P8 for Hamilton and P9 for Leclerc, they will be looking forward to Singapore as normally the Ferrari’s do well there.
I think this weekend has been incredible for us. Of course, last 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. 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.
Verstappen on the win.
Leave a comment